Calling Us Home
by DuskitMermaid
Summary: Seth feels gravity shift under the most embarrassing of circumstances. His imprint is a unique-headed girl who's been waiting to find 'the one', despite being told it's impossible.
1. Preface

_Hi, everyone. Just thought I'd get this chapter up because so much Twilight business is happening lately and it won't ever again, so I'm going with it all. I had such a big break from Twilight, but the wolves just keep dragging me back in. And Hillywood's finished with all of their Twilight parodies now - so sad!_

_This is my second imprint story. I hope it's appreciated as much as my first was - still bewildered that the last got so much attention. I was actually working on this story a few years ago along with that one, and it's undergone so much work since then. The first few chapters are just about ready to post, so there won't be a very long wait until I have the second one up. I'll be posting the preface and first chapter today._

_I really enjoy hearing from you guys and always take the time to answer reviews - I've met some very good friends through reviews, so fingers crossed I hear from you!_

_Hope you enjoy._

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**Preface:**

**Seth's POV**

I've never really been one for Math, but I can see I'm gonna have to use it to explain this properly...

Okay, think of the most embarrassing thing that's ever happened to you.

Now think of your life's most important moment.

Combine the two.

Now times the embarrassing part by two thousand, three hundred and fifty-seven and imagine having a brain that's picked up its pace so much in the last few years, it's kinda impossible to forget even the most minute details of certain things.

Sound like something you'd wanna go through?

Yeah, I didn't think so...


	2. We Belong

_This story has been in my mind for a few years now and I've gathered a collection of songs which have provided inspiration. I'll be naming chapters after songs which have influenced certain parts of the story._

_The title of this story and this chapter belong to Brooke Fraser._

**Oh, can you feel the gravity falling,  
Calling us home,  
Oh, did you see the stars colliding,  
Shining just to show,  
We belong**

-_Deciphering Me_, Brooke Fraser

* * *

**Chapter One - Can You Feel the Gravity Falling:**

_Ugh, Jared, _please_! _I wined, running father away from the huge brown wolf I was currently sharing my patrol time with. His thoughts of Kim faded to a smaller spot in the back of both our minds, and I sighed in relief. _You know, it's a lot easier hanging out with the guys with younger imprints. They think of them as friends._

_I think of my Kimmy as a friend! _His attitude was now taunting.

Just_ friends wouldn't do...that kind of thing together... _I shuddered.

_I didn't say _just_ friend, did I? And you know Jake's just gonna get worse from here. Have you seen Ness lately?_

_I'll stick with Quil._

_Until Claire's older?_

_Embry..._

_Oh, Embry. It's about time the poor guy imprinted, too, isn't it? Then again, he is enjoying the bachelor's lifestyle for now. I'm sure you've noticed - _

_Maybe _I'll_ imprint next! _I shot back at him. _Then I won't just have to think of everyone else's girlfriends naked!_

Jared chuckled to himself before replying. _Are you sure you'd be able to handle a woman, Little Sethy-pooh? Look how soft all the other guys went after we imprinted...you'd be nothing but a puddle._ His mental voice was now similar to what he'd use with the younger children on the Reservation. I growled in a low attempt to defend myself and considered phasing back to get out of my slightly humiliating situation. It couldn't be long til my shift was over now...

_Brady's in the house! _I felt him phase as he shouted into our heads.

_Don't feel so relieved Seth! _Jared joked.

I knew Jared was only messing around with me. All of us got on really well, unless one of us was thinking about another's girl inappropriately...but none of us could really help that, what with her partner's mind constantly drifting back to what he'd rather be doing a great deal of the time. I had to admit though, it was better than when the lonely ones decided to dwell on my sister naked. I did _not_ need to see _that._

Still, it pissed me off when they made remarks about their suspicions in how I'd act with an Imprint of my own. Embry had thought it hilarious to assume I would find my soul mate in a...well, an experienced woman who wouldn't deal with any crap and had joked with the other guys for an entire night about how I'd have to become a real man to keep her. I mostly just attempted to tune them out and get my work done, but they all knew how desperate I was to find my own soul mate and just start my life with her. That was part of the reason why they did it, which sounds horrible, but I knew it was all in good fun.

Leah was already home when I'd phased and walked the short distance to the small house I'd spent the full twenty-one years of my life in. I didn't see as much of my sister as I used to - in the past couple of years she'd come closer and close to quitting the pack, leaving Jake to nominate Embry as his Beta. Quil was a little ticked off in the beginning but he came around. Embry was without an imprint, so he himself saw it as evening it out. And when Sam first started thinking about staying human permanently and the packs had first been joined again the others were hopeful to be promoted, seeing as Paul and Jared were older. Sam still phased occasionally, but less and less all the time, much like my sister. I knew it wouldn't be long until I wouldn't be able to listen in on their thoughts at all anymore. Sam still phased to make sure there was no inner turmoil in the pack, but Leah did mostly by accident. She'd been working so hard to just becoming a human again, and I was really proud of the progress she'd made. She was even a whole lot happier than she used to be.

I let myself in out of the gently rain and casually helped myself to a couple of pieces of her home-made pizza from the table. My mom was sitting on the couch in the tiny living room, reading an old book. Leah was sitting on the floor, her eyes locked on the television as she tugged at a bracelet around her wrist. Neither of them looked up as I entered the room.

"Hey," I fell into the only armchair heavily.

"Careful with the furniture, Seth," mom cautioned for what could have been the hundredth time that month - I'd lost count. "You know we can't afford to replace anything broken."

"I know," I murmured, so quiet I didn't know if she would hear.

The house itself was beginning to fall apart, but no one was mentioning it. There were leaks in the roof when the weather turned extreme and more than once I'd had to nail in a panel falling straight off an exterior wall. Truthfully, I knew not one of us had seen the house still being lived in too far into the future. Leah had started up a bank account for an apartment with a couple of the girls she'd met through her newest job. I was well aware that Mom was just waiting around for us to move out so she could start her life properly with her partner of over five years, Charlie Swan, so I wasn't going to stick around any longer than I had to. She was happy with Charlie, and I didn't want her to feel like she owed me anything. I was old enough to have a life separate from my family now. I just didn't want to be completely alone.

"Seth," Leah turned, and I could see an excitement in her eyes from what she was keeping from me. "Stacey's thinking about having a Halloween party."

"Bit short notice, don't you think?"

She snorted. "You don't need to have a perfect costume every year, Seth - you're twenty-one!"

"Still, it's Halloween. And I'm not gonna have _any _time now! In between patrol and running errands for anyone around LaPush..."

"It doesn't matter. It's just a party. Stacey's inviting all the guys, of course, so I doubt everyone there will look like movie stars. She said to bribe you with pretty Forks girls, so either way, you're coming."

I grinned. Stacey worked with Leah at a small store in Forks. They'd met during one of Leah's yoga classes a couple of years back and Stacey had helped her get the job. I knew having a friend off the Reservation was part of the reason Leah had been doing so well, seeing as she had an escape from everything going on here, and I really liked Stacey. She was a lot of fun. Just a genuinely good person. Leah had invited her up for a few of the bonfires out on First Beach, too, and she'd gotten along with everyone enough that they'd asked about her when she was absent. Of course, she knew nothing about the wolves, and it was funny to watch her drink more and more alcohol and by the end of the night begin claiming there was something in the water at LaPush that turned us all into giant mutants.

Halloween was in a couple of days, so that left me absolutely no time at all to get myself a costume together. I was a little disappointed. I'd been doing odd jobs around the Reservation to earn a little bit more pocket money, seeing as it was currently impossible to find a job, and I had a pile of them lined up for the next week or so, when I wasn't on patrol.

I brought up the subject to Collin the next morning as we dug around in his family's front yard. "Are you going to Stacey's tomorrow night?"

"Yeah," he pushed the sleeves of his T-shirt over his shoulders and gripped his shovel again. "I was gonna go trick-or-treating with Mason, Logan, Chase and Amelia but Chase promised her there would be more candy involved at the party, so we've changed out plans."

"You're using Chase's Imprint to get candy now? You should be ashamed of yourselves." I chuckled. Chase was two years younger than myself, like Collin, and had phased during all the scary crap with the Volturi six years ago. He'd imprinted on thirteen-year-old Amelia on Christmas Day last year when he'd visited relatives on the Hoh Reservation for lunch. As I understood it, his cousin's neighbors - Amelia's parents - weren't too impressed at having their daughter kidnapped occasionally by a freakishly large Quileute guy.

Collin grinned. "Ah, Seth, it's not really 'using' her...she's been trying to worm her way into hanging out with us every chance she gets. She has a _major _crush on Chase at the moment, and he's starting to freak out - he's not used to not giving her whatever she wants, and she can't seem to understand she's a bit young for him right now."

"Poor guy," I muttered sarcastically. "So you already have your costumes?"

"Amelia wasn't going to let us go without them."

"Great," I sighed.

He chuckled. "Seth, it's not like everyone there will have a costume. We're adults now."

}~*~{

I was going to kill them. Every single one of them.

I felt like a complete idiot as I wandered from the entrance of the backyard with Sam and Emily, a large plate of Em's famous Halloween cupcakes in my hands. I sat it on the table beside the other plates we'd bought and made my way slowly to Stacey, who was grinning over a cup in her hands at a couple I didn't really pay any attention to.

"Seth!" she grinned and gave me a quick hug. "I was wondering when you were going to show up. You kept Sam and Emily from getting here on time!"

"Sorry, busy day," I grinned uncomfortably. "You look great, by the way." she was dressed in multiple layers of bright fabrics, her costume complete with a pair of bright yellow wings.

"Thanks," she looked over my shoulder. "Claire's being following me around...apparently we're twins tonight." I followed her eye line to see Claire and Quil in the middle of a hand-stand competition. Claire wobbled slightly on her long, skinny arms and bent her knees to catch herself, huffing at Quil before pushing him over. She was also dressed as a fairy, but completely in pink.

"Where's your costume?"

I sighed. "No time to get one together. And I kept being told I wasn't going to be the only one here without one."

"Oh, no! We're having a costume competition and everything. Best and worst...the outlook doesn't look that great for you, sorry to say..."

"We'll see," I tried to make a joke out of my awkward situation and motioned toward Embry and Quil, who were wearing matching Tweedledee and Tweedledum hats. "I still look better than those clowns."

Stacey left to mingle with the rest of her guests and I immediately migrated over to the food table, where most of my brothers were gathered, purple and orange plastic plates in their hands, threatening to bend under the loads of their meals.

"What did you come as?" Paul asked through a mouthful of food, waiting for me to answer in all seriousness as I gave him a long, blank look. He himself was dressed as a pirate, and somewhere in my peripheral vision I noticed Rachel walking in the opposite direction, wearing something similar but a little more revealing. Beside him, also watching me, were Jacob, Embry, Quil and Jared, who had dressed as the big bad wolf and three little pigs. I remembered Quil plotting out how he was going to change their costumes and dress as the wolf himself yesterday when we were on patrol, but he apparently hadn't won. Why hadn't I taken more notice yesterday and put at least a little bit of effort into my costume?

"I'm not anything. Just Seth."

"That's the worst costume I've ever seen in my life." Embry grinned. "You could have mixed things up and come as someone who took all the ladies' attention or something, but you've decided to stick to your normal lonesome ways."

My fingers twitched, but I managed to smirk with a roll of my eyes and lean around him to retrieve a plate for myself.

Eventually the music started getting louder, more people started dancing and the smaller guests' eyes began drooping. Quil finally decided Claire had had enough when she got past the point of tired and took out her temper-tantrum on his arm with the spoon she'd been using to dig out pumpkin brains at the jack-o-lantern table. Once he'd left with her, a few other people with children made their way out, too. The party continued with the remaining guests, and I kept talking with a couple of the guys while eyeing an attractive blonde who made quite a good Cat Woman.

A game of spin the bottle started up just as Chase and Quil returned, imprintless and seeming less enthusiastic about the party than before. Those with imprints continued to sit around the table and watch the game, as well as a few more of us. I knew the kind of talk that would start up if I joined in (the guys really seemed to enjoy making jokes about me, over everyone else in the pack), so I talked to Sam and Emily until the game was called off and the costume contest was announced to be starting.

Brady made his way over to us with a very tipsy Cat Woman and the blonde frowned at me when I shook my head at my friend. "What?" Brady asked, wrapping his arm around her more tightly and steering her off, in the direction of the large group of people now gathering around Stacey in the center of the yard.

"Everyone over here!" she called loudly, her voice higher than usual, straining over the consistent music. I turned it down and she thanked me with a wink, and then gasped. "Seth! Come here! You're not getting out of this one!"

I eyed the seat I'd been able to take my place in longingly and then obeyed, standing behind Sam and Paul. Everyone was watching Stacey with the same amused, slightly nervous smile, wondering how this was going to go.

"Okay, I have a prize for the person with the best costume..." she started off, holding her hand out for said prize. Her boyfriend, Patrick I think his name was, passed her a large bottle of alcohol and a stupid-looking hat. "So we're all going to vote for the best and worst costumes, and then I'll dish out the punishment for the worst." her eyes narrowed at me, even though I'd tried my hardest to disguise myself behind my brothers, and I flinched.

Our host took a few people by the hand and pulled them out to the front of the crowd. The big bad wolf and three little pigs were taken out, but didn't win. I understood. The costume wouldn't have been as appreciated to most of the guests at the party as they were to our small group of friends.

"Okay, Katie wins." Stacey decided after a loud roar from the crowd as Cat Woman landed a clumsy cartwheel in front of us all. That was a fair call. The leather cat suit seemed as though it had been sewn up especially for her body, and I knew myself and Brady hadn't been the only ones to have our eyes on her tonight. Katie tossed her blonde hair back and grinned widely, taking the hat and placing it on her head. I wondered if Brady thought she looked alright in it, or if he'd lost his interest by now.

"Worst costume..." Stacey mused, walking along the edge of the semi-circle we'd created. My stomach clenched, and for a good reason. She lifted her hand and motioned for me to meet her at the front of the group. "Come here, Seth."

"It shouldn't count because I'm not wearing one!" I insisted, even though I was pretty sure I'd started walked before she'd even said my name. "I can't have the worst costume if I didn't even dress up!"

"Shame on you!" she accused with a laugh. "Ruining my party with your boring old clothes."

I sighed and allowed her to tug me out with her, being booed by the guys in the back row. "Shut up," I muttered bitterly, crossing my arms and standing next to Katie, who wasn't looking my way at all.

"Seth's punishment will be dealt by Katie," now I had the blonde's attention, "Truth or dare. Simple." Stacey looked pleased with herself as she fell back in line with a few of her friends and Katie grinned, turning to me as I squirmed under her probing eyes.

"Well, truth or dare?" she asked, her words slurred as she reached out and pressed her fingers against my left bicep. Her eyes followed her fingers and she studied my arm before biting her lip and looking back up at me.

I sighed. I'd had more than enough experiences with truth or dare when I was a lot younger, and from those experiences I'd learned that either way could go terribly, terribly wrong. I usually chose the latter though, seeing as I could only embarrass myself through following through with a dare. Telling the truth with some things could only get me into worse trouble than I was asking for.

"Dare," I mumbled. There was a loud cheering noise and Katie grinned, eyeing the quiet street around the front of Stacey's house.

"Seeing as no one's impressed with your costume," she began, tugging at the bottom of my shirt, "You should just get rid of it. And your pants. And then run down the street and back."

A few people let out nervous giggles and I felt my face grow hot with embarrassment. I slid my eyes to Stacey, mentally begging her to bring something else to the table. She just shrugged, looking extremely happy with how her little game was playing out, and I was very aware that my expression made me look like a grumpy toddler.

So, two minutes later, seeing as I'm Seth Clearwater and luck is never on my side, the entire group was assembled under the trees that lined the dead end of the street, Stacey's house a hundred feet or so before us on the left-hand side. It was almost completely dark where we were standing now, under our small natural shelter, but there were a few street lamps that lined the road on either side, and I was not looking forward to nearing any of those.

Like an outcast, I walked to my place by myself and stood in front of the group alone. I could still hear quiet snickers at my expense, and did my best to ignore them, but my fingers were starting to shake under their eyes and I knew I would never live this one down.

"What are you waiting for?" Katie had joined me by my side and pulled impatiently at my t-shirt as she kicked the back of my ankle in an attempt to get me to move. "Come on! It's freezing away from the fire!"

Apparently those not in the know about my freakish body temperature didn't really care for my wellbeing, seeing as they all agreed and egged me on to get my clothes off. I threw a look over my shoulder to Leah, screaming at her mentally to step forward and stopped this, but she bit her lip and turned into Rachel's shoulder so as not to look.

So, with no one planning to help me anytime soon, I pulled my shirt over my head, dropped it on the ground at my feet and cleared my mind as I ridded myself of my pants.

The guys found this an appropriate time to wolf-whistle, making it harder for me to forget where I was.

_Just get it over and done with. The quicker you do it, the quicker you can get your clothes back on and sit in the corner to cry._

I started jogging as soon as the last item of clothing left my body, my eyes focused only on the sign at the end of the street. I was to tap that with my fingers, then jog back. It could have been worse...it was only a couple of minutes away at a comfortable human pace...I bet I could make it in a minute if it looked like I was straining myself to the ignorant guests behind me.

I picked up my pace, grateful that it was late enough now for there not to be any trick-or-treaters around. The street was quiet, the flickers of light from televisions the only things that could catch my attention on either side of me. Behind me I could hear Paul gasping for breath through his laughing, but I didn't turn around. I kept up the quick human pace and was furious to see the sign didn't seem like it was getting any closer.

Then, right as a street lamp was nearing me, the front door of a house to my left opened. I shook my head, keeping my eyes straight ahead, even though they were trying to slide to the people leaving the house. I wanted to glare at them so badly for catching me at a time like this - my peers from the party were completely concealed, so I must have looked like someone who had lost their mind as I ran, naked down a deserted street. I could tell there were two of them from my peripheral vision. The smaller of the two closed the door behind them, but I didn't look to let them know I'd noticed them, even though I'd just run straight passed that very house.

A male voice laughed loudly from in front of the house and I wanted to throw something at him, even though there was nothing within my reach. Rather than make it worse for myself, I continued to run as though I was unaware of them...as though I did this every night.

I was unable to block out their conversation with my over-sensitive hearing.

"Did you have a good night?" the girl asked. Her voice was sensitive...childlike, although I could tell she must have been a young adult by her tone. The main thing that caught my attention, however, was her accent. She definitely wasn't American. Her words weren't pronounced enough...her vowels more rounded. The word 'night' had stretched on longer than necessary, and this strange sound had me curious to hear her speak again.

There was a short pause before the guy answered. "Yeah, it was okay. I didn't really like the movie too much."

"Oh...I just thought you might have wanted to watch something Halloween-y since you didn't want to go to the party..." Stacey's party? It would make sense, seeing as she was her neighbor...if she lived there, that is. I was still unable to place her accent...British, maybe? She hadn't pronounced the R in 'party', and it tugged at my curiosity again. "Well, thanks for coming over anyway.

"Yeah," they were behind me now, but I didn't hear his footsteps scuffing down her driveway again so I knew he was still standing in front of her like before. There was a long pause, and I could almost feel how awkward it was back there, and then he huffed loudly and the next thing I heard was a car door opening and closing. It started up immediately and drove out, onto the street more quickly than was probably safe for a human driver. I was just at the sign when he turned the corner, which was just to my right. I shot him an annoyed look as I kicked off the gutter and started up the street when he stuck his head out of the window, sounding the car horn and wolf-whistling in my direction. I couldn't even find humor in the irony at a time like this.

I hoped his calls wouldn't attract any of Stacey's other neighbor's attention and picked up my pace even more, not caring now if I seemed a little too quick for my audience's eyes. I could act puffed when I got back.

I was running for another fifteen seconds before I looked up from the road...

Oh my God, the girl was still there! Just standing out the front of her house, looking down the street at me. I didn't want to look back at her, but I could see her from the corner of my eye. I wished I was just a little bit closer so I could snap at her to go back inside. From what I could see, she was wearing an aqua-colored long dress with sleeves that puffed above her shoulders. _She'd _obviously dressed up for Halloween.

I focused back on the group of trees at the end of the street, where I could see some of the people from the party watching, amused as I made my way back to them. And the girl still didn't move!

I was just about to pass her house when I looked back over to her with an annoyed look on my face, telling her silently to mind her own business...the look quickly disappeared as I caught her eye.

The orangey street lamp almost directly out the front of her house hit her face delicately, sending sparkles from her eyes to bounce back at me. Oh my God...she was so beautiful. I couldn't remember seeing anyone who looked as angelic as that, and that included every one of the Cullens. I slowed my pace, only half-aware that I was doing so, 'til I'd completely stopped out the front of her house, watching her as she stared back at me.

All at once, I forgot I was standing in an unfamiliar street of Forks with no clothes on in front of who I was sure was the most beautiful creature on the planet. I couldn't even tell if she was real or not...but I wanted to go up and touch her just to make sure. I just wasn't sure that I could more toward her without stumbling...she seemed to be pulling me forward, but the feeling was too intense to allow myself to submit to her. Instead, I kept staring at her, never blinking, just to make sure she wouldn't vanish if I did. Someone real just couldn't look like that.

She had lightly-tanned skin and huge hazel eyes, which my own bored into almost painfully. Her hair was a dark brown, almost auburn as it reflected the amber-colored light of the streetlamp. It fell down to the middle of her back, with a heap of big curls at the ends. It framed her face oddly, as though it had been pushed back recently, and her eyebrows arched under them, her eyes flicking from my own to the sidewalk as she began feeling uncomfortable. I wanted to tell her it was alright, just as long as she kept looking at me, but I couldn't find my voice to do so.

I watched closely as she bit her perfectly-shaped bottom lip, looking back at me for a second longer before turning and walking back inside with an odd kind of graceful bounce to her step, as though she were walking through water. As soon as the door had closed and she was out of my sight I felt the pull more strongly, and my feet began stumbling, more uncoordinated than they had been since I'd become a wolf that very first time, right in the direction of her front door. I needed to see her again. Now. Right now. Where was she? Had she even been here? Was she real? Was I unconscious? Why wasn't she here?!

"Seth!" Stacey's voice from somewhere on my left made me jump, and I was suddenly brought back to the time and place. It sounded like she was annoyed. I wondered if she'd been calling me for a while.

I put a hand to my face, rubbed my forehead as I blinked a couple of times, then took off toward the forest again straight away, concentrating _very _hard on keeping a human pace as my clothes got closer and closer.

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_If people are interested, the next chapter is just about ready to go and will be up super quick!_

_It gets exciting from here!_


	3. Liar, Liar

_Thank you so much to all of the beautiful people who took the time to favourite and follow this story, and also to AshleighRebekah, lightbabe, Deadtom77, Shouldna, spannieren, emmettheart and Pinkkitten1 who left me lovely reviews, as well as my guest reviewers who I couldn't reply to. So glad to hear people are enjoying this story, and it was lovely to see some familiar names from my last imprint story. Means a lot!_

**Oh, oh, the sirens sang so sweet,  
And watched the sailors going down,  
Oh, oh, you talk to me in siren song,  
Yeah, anyone would drown,  
Anyone would drown**

-_Liar, Liar_, A Fine Frenzy

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**Chapter Two - The Sirens Sang So Sweet:**

_Aw, little Sethy's got his first girlfriend!_

_Guys, I think she has a boyfriend..._

_He's never had a girlfriend before?_

_She's not as pretty as Rachel..._

_Shut up, Paul. Rachel's nothing compared to Claire!_

_But she can keep me entertained a lot better than Claire can while you're on your little babysitting duties..._

_Jeez, Paul, that's my sister!_

_Just saying,_

_Can't we just concentrate on doing nothing like usual? _I asked weakly, trying to get everyone back to their boring thoughts. I wasn't stupid. I knew this was no normal patrol. If it was, I would be sharing my thoughts with Quil and Quil alone. It would be better. Paul wouldn't be here to infuriate me, and Jake wouldn't be here to make me feel immature, and I would be able to wallow more successfully. They were checking up on me. It had been three days since I'd seen her. Three days since I'd heard that strange ring to her words and wondered where she was from. Three days since I'd actually felt at home. I wasn't feeling right. I hadn't been acting right since after Stacey's party. I was anxious all the time, and my concentration was hardly anywhere it needed to be, even on patrol. _That_ was why they were here.

_Just go and see her, Seth. You're going to tear yourself up over this._

_Arrgh! Well, seeing as you guys seem to be so sure of everything, I'll just leave you to handle this for the morning, will I?! _I phased before they could object and pulled my pants on a lot more roughly than I needed to. My feel thumped into the floor of the forest as I marched my way through the trees toward my house. I hadn't gone far from home for a good reason, because I knew I wouldn't be able to cope through patrol today, so I was grateful when my small house came into view and I could get inside, away from everyone else. Leah was at work and Mom had said she was going to visit Charlie, so I had the house all to myself. I walked through the front door, shook off the rain and kicked off my shoes. It took me about four seconds to get them back on and walk back outside.

I hadn't been able to get the girl's face out my mind since the party. Three days. And that whole time I'd been trying to devise a foolproof way to 'accidently' bump into her and never let her out of my sight again.

I wanted to find her right now and touch her hand. I wanted to know what her skin felt like and what her name was and where she was from and how long she'd been in America and whether she preferred ketchup or barbecue sauce. I wanted to know how long she'd slept for last night, and whether she'd been dreaming about me like I'd been dreaming about her, or if she'd forgotten me as soon as she was back inside her house. I felt my heart twist uncomfortably at this thought, but I climbed into my car anyway and pulled my seatbelt on quickly, pushing down on the pedal harder than was necessary in my haste to be close to her again.

There was only one problem; she most likely thought I was some kind of psycho. The only time she'd ever seen me was when I'd stopped and stared at her like a creep outside of her house. At night. Without my clothes on. I hardly had any experience with girls, but I knew they probably didn't really like that kind of thing...

So I wouldn't go straight to her house and knock on her door. I would have to put one of my more inconspicuous plans into action. Or get help! Yes! There was someone who could push me in the right direction. The beauty had mentioned a party that night I'd seen her, and if fate was really working with me on this one, it meant her neighbor had invited her. A neighbor I was quite comfortably acquainted with.

I stopped my car out the front of Stacey's house a short while later and flagged down her car as she tried to reverse out of her driveway.

"What is it, Seth?" she asked, winding down her window and sticking her head through. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," I told her sincerely, though I'm almost positive I looked like I was in pain a little. That probably wasn't going to help her believe me. "I -" _I need to know your neighbor's name...I want to stalk her._ "I just came to ask you...about your neighbor."

She looked toward the house I was pointing at, three doors down from her own. "What, the pretty little brunette?" she asked. I nodded. She smirked. "Why?"

I looked at my feet. How was I supposed to explain that I was tracking her down because she'd basically picked up my world and shaken it just from a glance? "I just saw her on Halloween and...and thought she was pretty."

"She is," she agreed, checking her watch. "Look, Seth, I'd love to stay and chat about her and everything, but I really have to go..."

"So I just knock on her door and ask to come in?" I blurted out, a little aggravated. Then I realized I would have sounded insane to Stacey and clenched my lips together. It didn't matter. I wouldn't be able to make my legs carry me to her front door without having a nervous breakdown in the process, I was sure.

She looked at the house for another second, then shook her head, her eyes wide, maybe wondering if I'd lost it. "No, don't do that..." she thought for a second, then let go of a few breathy chuckles." Why don't you go to Port Angeles? Right now? Get a coffee from that cute little orange cafe with all the purple couches in it. Their coffee's good."

With that, she continued to drive, her window closing as I followed her car desperately, shouting at her that I wasn't in the mood for coffee...I couldn't sleep either way.

Then I thought back over her attitude as she told me. It seemed like she'd been confused, but had given up trying to take all the information she needed. She was telling me where to go...

I climbed into my car and started it frantically, flying down Stacey's street as soon as I was able. I gave my mystery girl's house one more look as I drove past. It was only then I gritted my teeth, thinking Stacey could have at least given me her name.

It seemed to take forever to get to Port Angeles. Usually drives didn't bother me much at all - they were quite relaxing, actually, but the time today seemed to drag on forever, and I had to keep checking the clock to make sure I wasn't taking hours to get there.

When I finally did get there, I pulled into the nearest space the car would fit and jumped out, locking the door quickly behind me with slightly fumbling hands. What if she wasn't here? What if I'd taken Stacey's words the wrong way? What if I looked like I really had just needed a coffee?!

I was on my way to the little cafe that she'd been talking about and was only a couple of blocks away when I broke out of my slightly frantic thoughts and heard it...the most amazing sound in the world.

_"Oh, can you feel the gravity falling,  
Calling us home,  
Oh, did you see the stars colliding,  
Shining just to show,  
We belong,  
We belong,"_

The sound pierced through me at once and pinned my feet to the sidewalk under me, and I gasped, attracting some alarmed stares from a couple of people close enough to care. I listened closely though, pulling each tiny sound from the air and drinking them in like I was a deaf man hearing for the first time.

I couldn't explain the voice, really. It was what I expected an angel to sound like...no, better. Like some kind of Siren. I started following the voice without thinking about it. I'd suddenly forgotten the little cafe and everything else in the world. The voice was pulling me along, and I was past the point of caring for my wellbeing. It just needed to be louder - closer. _Must be a Siren..._ I knew that conclusion was supposed to be a grim one, but the thoughts of hopeless sailors in ancient stories being drowned from the owners of such voices didn't seem too distressing to me now. What lucky guys.

When I was finally close enough not to feel lost, I understood everything. My dark-haired imprint stood in a small clearing under a tree, its leaves more orange than green, a sandy-colored guitar in her arms and the heel of her right foot tapping lightly as she sang her song to the passersby.

_"Well I am tuning you in,  
And you are deciphering me,  
Not such a mystery,  
Not such a faint and far away sound,"_

I couldn't look away from her for a long time, but every once in a while someone would walk between us, right up in front of her, then leave. I didn't care enough to find out what they were doing, but when a guy, probably in his early twenties, wandered a little too close for my liking and bent slightly, I growled quietly and watched him.

His arm extended toward the guitar case at her feet and dropped in a few coins. Oh. She was street performing.

She finished her song with a slow strum of her guitar, her eyes trained on the ground to her right, looking either a little bored or as though she was dreaming. She snapped out of it as the sound of her guitar left the air and offered a small smile to anyone watching, then bent awkwardly to retrieve a brass-coloured capo and snapped it onto the neck of her guitar. My feet carried me closer and closer, until I was able to pick her scent out of all the other people's surrounding me.

She smelled like vanilla...with a slight hint of chocolate and peppermint. It made my mouth water, and I found myself wandering even closer to her, my hand reaching into my pocket and pulling out whatever money I had in there. I knew it wouldn't be much...wouldn't be _enough_ for her, but her eyes still widened she looked up, shocked, shaking her head as I tried to make sense of her movements through my uncooperative mind.

"You don't have to do that!" she insisted, a small smile playing around her lips. There was that accent again! I hadn't noticed anything out of the ordinary while she'd been singing...her words had just flowed gracefully from one syllable to the next, but it was back as strongly as it had been the first night I'd seen her. Her voice while she was talking was almost as magical as when she was singing; the naïve edge present in her timbre.

She watched me with those enormous hazel eyes for a few seconds, while I reminded myself urgently that I should be acknowledging her rather than just staring, then she bent and picked up the twenty-dollar bill, placing it into my hand gently.

"Thank you, really, but I'm not that talented. And I'd feel bad if I accepted." she put a small laugh on toward the end of her sentence. I looked down at my hand, where her small fingers had touched the side of my palm, sending a shock up my arm and raising goose bumps along it.

I looked back up at her, determined to convince her I was not mute. "No, take it." I said stupidly, holding it back out to her.

She gave me a sweet smile, but shook her head a couple of times. "That's all right."

I looked around, hard as it was, as if there would be something to help with the situation I was in. "I'll buy you a coffee." I said as my eyes locked onto the cafe Stacey had told me to go to. We were in the exact spot she'd hinted.

My imprint looked at the cafe, her expression telling me she was uneasy about being invited to lunch by a stranger. She bit her bottom lip, watched a few people passing us, then straightened, nodding a couple of times. "Okay."

I was so happy to hear that come out of her mouth. I helped her with her guitar, neither of us speaking, then carried it into the cafe for her, ignoring her as she insisted she could take it herself.

"That's really nice of you." she said quietly, sitting in a booth in the corner of the wide room and watching me with a slightly confused look.

"What would you like?"

"I'll just have a hot chocolate, please. Oh! Vanilla, if they have it." she gave me another small smile as I nodded and walked to the counter, trying my hardest not to turn around and look at her the entire way. When I was in the short line, however, I couldn't help myself. I was lucky - her eyes were out the window beside the booth, watching a huge tree swaying slightly in the strong breeze. I got our drinks and set her hot chocolate in front of her. She looked at it for a few seconds before picking it up and blowing gently on the top of it.

Then I remembered that she didn't know me at all and this usually wasn't what people did, and shouldn't she be worried that a random guy off the street had offered her coffee when he didn't even know her name?

"I'm Seth Clearwater." I said after a long, quiet moment.

She looked up at me again and made my insides melt with her wide eyes. "I'm Aubrey Grace Butterfield." she said with a small smirk, probably because I'd sounded so formal with my introduction. "But everyone just calls me Grace." She wasn't afraid to try to get along with people, thank goodness. I would have felt like more of a complete idiot than I already did if she didn't want to speak back to me.

"Why Grace?" I asked her interestedly. "Aubrey's really pretty."

"Thank you!" her whole face lit up when she heard that. "I think it is, too, but everyone's called me Grace my whole life. My grandmother's name was Aubrey, so it was just easier when I was younger. I usually don't even tell people my name's Aubrey when I meet them, but I thought seeing as you'd given me _your_ full name, Seth Clearwater." There was something slightly eccentric to the way she spoke...as if she was having fun just letting the words fall out.

"Do you mind if I call you Aubrey?"

"Not at all," she took her first sip of chocolate, her lips slightly pulled up into her adorable smile again. I wanted to touch her lips...

I caught her as she glanced at me for a moment, then a puzzled look crossed her face. I expected her to look away, which she didn't do, and felt my heart rate increase as we stared back at each other before she said what came to mind next. Then my heart just about stopped altogether.

"Halloween!"

_Crap!_ "Halloween?"

"You're the naked guy!" she said gleefully. I felt air against my shins as she kicked her feet under the table. "I _knew_ I'd seen you before! That's why you looked so familiar!"

"Oh, you saw that?" How the hell else was I supposed to reply while on this subject?

"You stopped and stared at me, Seth!" she was grinning widely, and I tried not to get distracted by how beautiful the sight was. "Remember?"

I paused, swallowed, and searched for the right thing to say. I kicked myself for not opening my mouth for about ten seconds and making it even more awkward before I finally spluttered. "I was - it was a, uhh...a dare...it was hard to see...I didn't know that was you." I lied quietly.

"Oh, don't worry," she leaned across the table and I froze as she took my hand with both of hers. Comforting me. I looked down at them, surprised. Her hands were so small and the most wonderful color, standing out against my own dramatically. How could someone so small make such tremendous feelings burst inside of me?

"I didn't see...anything." she bit her lip, still managing to look completely serious. She was blushing slightly, and I could tell she was being honest. "But you do have a very nicely toned stomach." she said politely as she let go of my hand and leaned back in her seat again.

Aubrey took another long sip of her hot chocolate, her wide eyes still staring me down, and I decided I would have to be the one to change the subject. "What's your accent?" I asked suddenly.

She swallowed and set the mug on the table in front of her. "I just moved here from Australia a couple of months ago." she said pleasantly. It took me a second to get over the fact that she'd been so close to me for a couple of months and I hadn't even known she was here. I could have spent sixty days with her already.

Then her words caught up with me. Australian. I hadn't been able to pick it, because she spoke in a soft kind of way, not at all like the Australians in any television show I'd seen. They always seemed to have harsh kind of accents. Her way was really nice to listen to.

"Do you like America?" I asked. I'd never really been great at starting off conversations with people...

She nodded her head quickly. "I love it! It _is _a bit different to Australia...I always wanted to come here for a holiday, though, because Australia doesn't have a Disneyland, and our Wendy cups are different. I still haven't been to Disneyland, though. My dad got offered a job over here and my parents were iffy about it, even though the pay was so much better, but then my sister and I convinced them that it would be fantastic living here, and it's proved itself to be so far. I love the weather here, though. I'm glad we moved to Forks. My friends used to think I was crazy when I told them I hated summer back at home, but just about every day's been my cup of tea over here." She stopped abruptly and blushed a little. "Sorry, I got a bit carried away." Then she said, more quietly to herself, "Way to make friends, Grace..."

She took a long drink while I smirked; trying to contain my smile, then looked back up at me. "How old are you?"

"Twenty-one," I said immediately, wishing she would keep talking.

"Oh!" she seemed surprised. "You look older. I'm eighteen. I turned eighteen in September, so all my best friends were still back in Australia and I had to have a party with people I didn't know too well, but it was fun anyway. I finished school back at home, so I didn't get to meet anyone here through that, but I've met some people around. And I_ think_ I have my first boyfriend, but I'm not really sure." Our lips twisted at exactly the same time, and I wondered why hers had. She leaned back in her chair and eyed the mug before her again. "Thanks for buying me this, by the way. That was really nice."

"That's okay. I liked your singing." I said, trying to forget the fact that she had a boyfriend. What was I supposed to do now? I mean, I already had suspicions; I'd seen him a few days before. Everything from that night had turned to a blur beside her face, though, so I hadn't really concentrated on him. Now, though, when I thought back on it, I was a bit confused. He didn't seem at all like the type of person she should be with. He'd seemed loud and rude and too sure of himself. I remembered the awkward tension between the two of them I'd picked up on. She shouldn't be with him.

"Thank you," she said, blushing a little and bringing me back to our conversation. "I don't have a job here yet, so I'm trying to make up for it by busking." she paused and I gave her a confused look and she shook her head slowly. "You don't know what that is...performing on the streets and collecting spare change from people." she laughed, then sighed. "I used to do it all the time back at home, but it feels scarier here."

Aubrey downed the rest of her chocolate, wiped her mouth on the sleeve of her coat as she leaned forward and looked down at the table with her eyebrows raised, obviously wondering whether she should leave or now. "Aren't you cold?" she suddenly asked as her face looked back up to mine.

I looked down to make sure I was still wearing my denim shorts and black t-shirt and shook my head. "No, I'm not...I hardly ever get cold." I told her lamely, wishing I had some brilliant, scientific lie to tell her that would make me sound super smart.

She leaned back in her seat and wrapped her arms around herself, her long fingers digging into the elbows of her coat. "Maybe it's just because you've lived here your whole life...you have, haven't you? Where I came from, November was nothing like this. I mean, we _did _get a couple of random days that were cold enough to wear a cardigan, but I haven't been able to go out in just one of my dresses at all since we moved here. Not that I mind. I prefer to wear layers. I can't _wait_ to see what winter's like here! But your hand was really warm earlier. I didn't even notice until now, really." she reached for my hand and my heart raced as she put both of hers on the top of mine, not even hiding all of my skin "My hands're really small compared to yours..." she observed, a small frown playing around her eyebrows. "Nope. You're super warm." she looked up and gave me a small smile, leaning back in her seat once more and I was awestruck again. How could someone considered an adult have such a brilliant, child-like air about them? She was just adorable.

"If you're so cold, what made you want to stand in the rain and sing?"

"It's fun!" she said, as if that were all the explanation she needed. I told myself it was stupid to worry about her wellbeing, seeing as she was wearing one coat and there was another on the back of her chair, but still... "I love the rain. I bet I'd like the snow, too, but I've never seen it."

"You've never seen snow." I repeated. "That's terrible."

"I know!" she said, laughing slightly. "Most of my friends have...from Australia, I mean. But I never got to go anywhere to see it. Oh well. I live in a cold place now. Does it snow here?"

"Not too much. Enough to have fun for a little while, though."

"I wish it would start right now." Her voice was a whisper as she gazed out of the window again.

I watched her profile closely, loving the shape. Her nose bounced slightly up, and her bottom lip pouted out more than was probably necessary. Her eyelashes were fairly long, and curled gently so they brushed against her eyebrows when she looked upwards.

She turned back around and caught me staring at her. "What?" She was smiling again.

_Just trying to memorize every little part of your perfect face... _"Nothing," I shook my head. Great. She probably thought I was some kind of nut case. She let it go, though, and I was relieved.

It came to my attention that both of us had finished our coffees, but neither made an effort to move. Occasionally we would make a few remarks to each other, and I was so pleased at how much we agreed on.

We were there for maybe an hour. It didn't feel like that long. I started getting a bit worried that the staff would ask us to leave, a couple of them wandering a bit too close from time to time. I didn't even realize it was getting so late until her phone rang, and she jumped to her feet, exclaiming she had to be home soon.

I walked her to a small yellow car; a little disappointed she had her own way home and placed her guitar in the back seat. I mumbled a quick, awkward goodbye, the entire time telling myself not to do something stupid and almost breaking under the pressure, then turned and started walking away. I almost screamed with happiness when she called me back.

"Seth!" Oh my God. Just hearing my name come out of her mouth...her voice said it in a way I'd never heard before, and it just sounded perfect. I never wanted to hear it from anyone else ever again. I turned back to her and raised my eyebrow as I caught her biting her lip and looking to the side a little awkwardly. "Do you have a number I could get?"

"Oh, sure." Was it possible to fall to pieces and float to the sky? Because I'm pretty sure that was happening, though I forced my voice to remain as calm as possible. She asked me for my number! Which meant she hadn't just felt awkward that entire time, but actually wanted to speak to me, didn't it? Yes. I was definitely going to say yes to that one.

She handed me her phone and I punched my number in as quickly as I could, wishing the tips of my fingers were more cell-phone friendly. I handed it back to her and she smiled at the screen. "Thank you. Do you have your phone with you?" her face fell into a slight pout when I shook my head (I'd come straight from patrolling), and I was over the moon. "Give me your hand, then." I held it out weakly and she gently wrote a number on the wide part of my palm where my thumb extended toward my wrist, holding my forearm in her little left hand the entire time. Where she touched me tingled - the coolness of her human skin against mine felt more refreshing than anything I could remember, and I didn't want her to release me.

She offered me one last smile, thanked me for helping her with her guitar and watched as I turned and started making my way to my car once again. I walked slowly so I could watch her pull out, onto the road and begin driving in the direction of Forks.

I made it back to my own car, hardly aware of my surroundings, fell into the driver's seat and noticed for the first time parts of my face were slightly sore from the smile that seemed to be permanently plastered onto it.

In the past, I'd been worried about not imprinting at all...or, if I did, that she would be annoying or a bitch or (on my more selfish of days) not as attractive as the other guy's girls and the pack would find another way to give me hell for it. Aubrey certainly crossed all these worries off my list. She was...perfect.

* * *

**Sending out big, warm, wolf hugs to anyone who leaves me a review! Let me know what you think - Aubrey's very special to me and I want to see how she's accepted.**

**Next chapter will be up as soon as I can manage.**

**Chlowie, xo**


	4. Thinking of You

_Thank you so much to dawnmac, Deadtom77, lightbabe, AshleighRebekah, Pinkkitten1, miramisa90212, rowandasky and my guest reviewers since I posted the last chapter. It was wonderful hearing your thoughts on how this story is going! You all have no idea of the motivation reviews give me to keep going._

_I'm so glad everyone seems to think Aubrey's okay. This is the first time I've ever written a story with a heroine who hasn't been known by anyone before, and so it's the first time I've ever been able to create a character with similarities to myself. I don't have to think about how she would react because I just take my reactions, and I'm having so much fun! Sorry, I'm rambling and this might be a really long note._

_I hope you like this chapter._

_The title belongs to Katy Perry._

* * *

**Chapter Three - With Him I am Thinking of You**

I took my phone out of my pocket, stared at it for a second, thought better of it, then put it on the table in front of me and continued watching it intently. The conversation from yesterday afternoon with Aubrey ran through my head over and over again, my thoughts lingering on the way her wide eyes caught the light and sent a shimmer back to me...the way her face changed shaped completely when she smiled...the way she pouted her lips from time to time...how her eyebrows constantly arched up and down...the small freckle on the left side of her top lip...

I picked up my phone again, found her name in my contacts, then put it back on the table, just as Leah walked into the kitchen.

"She's waiting for you to text her." she said, pouring a glass of water and drinking the whole thing in one go.

"You can't know that."

She sighed and sat across the table from, staring at the chocolate chip cookies Emily had sent over this morning. Apparently news had spread that I was having a rough time with this imprint business. "Unlike yourself, I am a woman. And I know things. All the other guys had to get a move on and make it happen, so stop being a mopey bitch, pick up that stupid phone and make her love you!"

I eyed my phone, then looked back up at my sister. "But that makes me seem like a desperate loser."

"That's exactly what _she's_ thinking!" Leah pointed out. "So be a man and step up, Seth! Jeez!"

I waited another long moment, my heart racing, wishing I could get a look at the inside of Leah's head so I would know what to do. Apparently she wasn't going to wait around all afternoon, because she snapped again. "Seth! Trust me! You're a good-looking guy who bought her coffee, and she obviously liked talking to you, or she would've left before she had to be home. Text. Her!" she picked up the phone and threw it at me, hard, but I was able to catch it easily enough.

"What do I say?" I asked, eyeing Aubrey's name on the screen.

"Just...ask her what she's doing. And don't overthink everything - I know how you are." she wandered out of the room after that, mumbling that she was thankful Jake no longer expected her to show up for patrols anymore so she wouldn't have to put up with my wallowing internally.

}~*~{

**Aubrey's POV**

I winced as the thick needle I was holding between my fingers slipped quickly through the ribbon and stopped in my finger. I pulled it back slowly and checked the tip of my finger for any blood, and that was when my phone went off. I bit my lip, wondering whether to check it or not. There were two names that sprang to mind with the sound of my phone - Owen the first. The one I dreaded.

I was very well aware that Owen had decided we were 'together'. I met him the week after I'd come to America, through the first friend I'd made here. She'd invited me to her house for a get-together on a Friday night where I would be able to meet more people. She was my age and had just left school herself, so it was nice to have that in common with her, even though our last years of school had been so different.

The get together wasn't really my kind of thing, but I was glad I did know quite a few people here now. At least I got invited places and felt like part of a group. I did enjoy spending quiet nights with Stacey, though. She looked out for me more than anyone else I'd known in my new home, and came around often to check up on our family. She told me she'd only moved out of her family's home last year, and they lived four hours away in Seattle, so she thought of us as her new family in a way. I was glad. She fit in well.

If only Owen fit in as well with my family...ever since the 'get together', he'd messaged me every day, always to talk about something I made a point of telling him I wasn't interested in. And when we were both free and he knew it he would come over to visit and I would have to talk my way through a conversation instead of pretending I didn't get his message.

I checked my phone wearily, a smile breaking out onto my face all on its own when I saw the other name I expected present.

Seth had been messaging me since the day after I'd met him in Port Angeles. He was a lot easier to talk to than Owen, but I felt more self-conscious with him. I didn't mind if I made a fool of myself to Owen, because it was funny to me. But I wanted to seem smart and easy to get along with to Seth. I told myself I was being silly, seeing as I'd met him one time and hardly knew anything about him. I'd realized all too late that I'd supplied most of the conversation that afternoon, and I felt bad. But it had been almost a week since then, and he was still talking to me, so...

**What are you doing?**

I thought over how to answer. Maybe tell him I was reading through the dictionary or something... I laughed to myself.

**Just sewing. What about you? **Why did I always want to kick myself after sending a message? It was although pressing the send button meant thinking up a better idea for a reply simultaneously.

**I just got home. It's been a big day.**

I glanced up at the clock on my bookcase, confused. **What do you mean you just got home? It's almost midnight. I thought your job was just helping out one of your friends.** I bit my lip after I'd sent the message through. What if he had a girlfriend I didn't know about and I was making him give me a very awkward answer? Something inside my stomach twisted at the thought, but I told myself I was being stupid. _I _was the one with a boyfriend, so even if Seth had someone, it shouldn't bother me. It _wasn't_ bothering me. I was just new to all of this stuff and couldn't decipher between friendship and...other things.

**I can get called in at any time. It's always different. But it's usually a 24/7 thing, so I'm just happy there are so many of us helping out.**

**Oh. I need a job.**

**I need a job that pays.**

**Me too. Busking's just not enough.**

**Are you going tomorrow? Leah has to go into Port Angeles, so I could give you a lift up and wait until you're finished.**

Who the hell is Leah? **Oh, I don't want you to wait out there for me. That might get annoying.**

**No, I want to hear you sing again. I wouldn't mind at all.**

**Are you sure? It would save me a bit with petrol... I could buy you a coffee? **I wished I was face-to-face with him. I imagined him laughing. But then I decided I didn't know him well enough to imaging him reacting to anything I said, and that made me want to be speaking in person even more. I had a feeling the interest I'd taken in him wasn't too normal.

**Or I could buy you a coffee again. Keep your busking money. What time would you like me to pick you up?**

Ohh...I needed Mae. Mae would know what was happening. Was this just friend stuff? I didn't know. I wasn't sure. I hoped it was a bit more than that, but then stopped that train of thought. What would my friends think of me if they knew I was fussing over someone other than Owen? Especially someone I hardly knew. **I was thinking of going around noon tomorrow. It's a bit cold in the mornings. Oh, but you don't know where I live!**

**My friend Stacey lives three doors down from you.**

**I love Stacey! She's lovely. She's one of my best friends in America, you know.**

Somehow we managed to stretch on this conversation for almost two hours, even though my eyes ended up drooping for the last half and I knew Seth was tired from his day. It wasn't until I fell asleep over my phone and jumped awake as it alerted me to a new message that I decided I should say goodnight. And then, of course, once I was tucked away safely in bed, I couldn't get thoughts of him out of my mind. This was unhealthy. I didn't even know him!

I hadn't told my family about Seth, which was strange, because I usually told them just about everything. But even seeing Owen coming over all the time was weird for them, I knew, because they'd never seen me with a boyfriend type before...even though Owen and I didn't act anything like a couple. I was the main cause of that. I knew that if I mentioned Seth there would be questions I wouldn't be able to skirt around. My mother and sister were quite perceptive on this kind of thing and would know straight away that I was a lot happier talking to him than Owen. And then my sister would insist I was getting my hopes up because I didn't know him and nothing would come out of it because after that I would be too scared to talk to my new friend. So it was better to keep quiet about it.

But why _did _I feel that much different about Seth? I had nowhere to place the answer...it was as though just speaking to him had been as easy as breathing. I was usually super wary around people I didn't know - especially guys. I hardly spoke to anyone I knew took an interest in my back in Australia, and I'd convinced myself I was turning over a new leaf in America, and that was why Owen had earned even the slightest amount of my attention, though I wasn't really working hard there. He was just very persistent. But that nervous feeling I usually got around guys close to my own age hadn't sprung up with Seth...sure, a nervous energy was there, but it was different. I felt...safe around him, I decided. Which was completely impractical, because he'd invited me to coffee off the street and you read all kinds of things in the newspaper that started off that way.

I shook my head and rolled over, looking through the blinds on the wide window beside my bed, even though I couldn't see anything in the petite hours of the morning. My room was full of a gold-coloured glow from the antique light on the desk behind me, and I let it comfort me enough to fall into my dreams.

}~*~{

"Nena, open the door! I really want to wash my face." I knocked loudly, the sound filling the entire house. My knuckles were getting sore.

The door opened suddenly, surprising me, and my sister's deep blue eyes looked back at me seriously. "Do you have any foundation?"

The look I gave her told her I was appalled. "Why do you want to wear foundation? You're thirteen!"

She gritted her teeth and I watched warily as her fingers clenched around the side of the door. My sister was very well known for physical overreaction, and I'd had more than my fair share of bruises from her temper tantrums. My parents wouldn't even believe some of the things she managed to do to me. Having her fingers locked in my hair as she forced my face into a wall wasn't my favourite thing to do on a Thursday night...

"I need foundation because Daniel invited me to the movies and I don't want him to know I have pimples."

"You mean his sister invited you to the movies and he has to take her and you're going to try to make him fall in love with you. And you don't have any pimples!" I pushed past her and tied my hair up, splashing my face with water and gasping. I swore and waited for the water to warm up a little bit before I attempted to do that again.

"I do! What's that and that and that?!"

"Stop it. You're being stupid."

"Whatever, Grace." I watched her with a small smile, trying not to laugh because I knew the outcome wouldn't be good for me, as she pushed her fringe down over her forehead and pulled a face at me.

"He's too old for you."

"Ugh! Don't act like you know anything about relationships! _I'm_ the experienced one."

"You know people assume the worst when they hear things like that, Nena." I finished washing my face and picked up my toothbrush.

"You think you're a princess," she scoffed. "And Owen's your prince!" she pouted her lips at me and I pushed her out of the way.

"Owen is not a prince...he's just a very typical guy."

"He's hot."

I laughed silently. "I don't really see that..."

"Are you still against blonde hair and blue eyes on guys, then? I thought you'd gotten over it. Are the two of you gonna get married?"

"I really don't think Owen's that type of guy." I said glumly through a mouthful of toothpaste which proceeded to run down my chin. Why couldn't I ever just keep it in my mouth?!

She sighed theatrically and slung her arm around my shoulder. This was slightly uncomfortable, seeing as she was a giant and around the same height as me now. Perhaps a little taller..."Maybe you should dump him so I can have him."

There was a knock on the door, and she all but flew out of the bathroom to answer it. I calmly continued to clean off my face, rinse my mouth, then fixed my face very softly, just with a tinted moisturiser, a brown eye shadow just a tiny bit darker than the natural colour of my eyelids and a very light helping of mascara, which I fixed up later by picking off the claggy bits with my fingernails.

As I washed my hands and eyed myself I heard my sister chatting enthusiastically and a familiar male voice answer her. I sighed. It was ten o'clock. Who knew he would be awake this early?

I'd run out of things to do in the bathroom. That didn't mean I couldn't just hide in here for a little while, though...

"Hey, Grace," the two of them were standing at the door and I gave them a small smile. "What are you getting all ready for?"

"I'm going into Port Angeles to busk today." I told him pleasantly. "I can actually afford to buy my own things now. I usually go in around this time, but it's been cold getting in there, so I thought if I got in there at lunch time it might be a bit warmer."

Owen didn't really seem to be listening. His eyes were glazed when I'd finished giving him his answer, but I wasn't surprised. I caught myself more with him than with everyone when it came to my rambling - he wasn't afraid to tell me if I should just stop talking, and it embarrassed me.

I offered to make him a cup of tea, and he declined. Then I asked why he'd come to visit and he told me he'd been bored. Then, coming to the conclusion that I could at least take part in an awkward conversation surrounded by things to distract me, I headed to my room, Owen following loyally, talking the entire time about something one of his friends had in their shed that I couldn't tell anyone about.

Seeing as I spent more time while I was talking carefully thinking over than my words than actually enjoying myself, I mostly let Owen talk. He told me all about things that had happened with my new friends during their time at school, and I tried to seem more interested than I actually was. I hadn't really felt a strong connection with any of the people who had attended Forks High School with Owen.

He moved from the swivel chair in front of my desk to sit next to me on my bed, and I felt myself tense at once from him being so close. He didn't mind initiating what were supposed to be physical signs of affection if it looked like I wasn't going to myself, so I was ready when he wrapped his arm around my shoulders and pulled me down to his chest. I fell awkwardly into his side, my hands still resting on my thighs, my eyes wide and staring straight ahead when I felt him play with my hair.

Would being with someone always be weird like this? I didn't like him touching me...I mean, I'd always wanted a boyfriend who would do things just like it, but knowing it was Owen...listening to him talk about things I didn't have the slightest clue of...it wasn't nice. His voice got further and further away as I mused over this.

I would probably like it if Aladdin was playing with my hair...Aladdin was attractive. I'd had a crush on him since I was seven, but in real life?

A face came to mind and I sucked in a tight breath. Seth? Every time I saw I had a message from him my fingers would tremble slightly, and I knew that was stupid, but I couldn't help it. And what Nena had said about my aesthetic preferences earlier...blonde hair and blue eyes had always been something I wanted myself, but I'd never found them attractive on a guy before. Well, except Enjolras, but that could just be the waistcoat.

No, I'd always seen myself with someone older...tall, dark hair, dark eyes...and, of course, I was sure that I'd never date anyone I couldn't have fun with. A man needed a good sense of humour, of course. But those physical features? The result I came up with made me slightly uncomfortable being this close to Owen. What if he could hear what I was thinking?

His hand continued to play with a small part of my hair, and twice it seemed to slip for a moment, as if he was going to pick up my hand, but he thought better of it and kept it to my hair. He knew I wouldn't react to him holding my hand. I was weird like that.

I didn't have a problem with holding hands, I just did with Owen. His hands didn't interest me. They were similar to mine, I suppose, in colour and just a bit bigger, except his nails were always bitten off to the beds and his knuckles were more knobbly. I'd always been told I had the dainty hands of a piano player, and occasionally they looked a little too small to be coming from my wrists, so Owen had small hands, too. And that meant small gloves...

I giggled awkwardly to myself and Owen raised his eyebrow.

"Nothing. I was just thinking."

"What were you thinking about?" his hand slipped once more, but this time I felt it on the back of my own and I twitched.

"Small gloves. Did you want to watch a movie?" that would give us a good excuse to be quiet until I had to kick him out for Seth to arrive.

"Okay. Which one?"

"Aladdin?"

He frowned. "Can I pick today?"

}~*~{

We ended up watching Sweeney Todd, because Nena insisted. Owen groaned just about every time someone started singing and I was ready to slap him in the face. He must have hated it just the right amount, though, because he stood up half way through it and watched me until I acknowledged him and followed suit.

"I should get home. I think Dad wanted me to help out today."

"Oh. Okay." I think he was waiting for me to say something else, but I just continued to watch him until he turned and began making his way to the door. I walked him out, because I wasn't completely horrible. And also because I didn't want him to turn around.

"What are you up to this week?"

"Nothing, nothing," I sighed. "Stacey mentioned something about going out for breakfast and I want to start exercising, but I don't think that's going to go ahead. I have trouble getting out of bed knowing I have to do work. And I suppose I should start looking for a job -"

"I'll see you soon, okay?" His voice had dropped, though he still managed to stop my chattering, and my eyes widened as he leaned down, catching my cheek as I turned my head and squeezed my eyes shut. I'm pretty sure my fingers were trembling so I bunched my hands together. I heard him sigh and he pulled back only far enough so our faces were right in front of each other. I pulled my lips back tightly and he offered a grim smile. "See you, Grace."

The door closed behind him in my face and I immediately frowned at the wood before me. Why was I so completely hopeless when it came to boys? Why couldn't I just get over my dreams of finding one person and sticking to them and suck up that Owen was my...boyfriend? - and I should be acting like it.

I thought back to him moving toward me and my nose scrunched, trying to forget about it already. I just didn't want to kiss him! Was that weird? Shouldn't I have those feelings that just about everyone else seemed to? Ew! Yuck! No!

He tried to hold my hand occasionally too, but I was very good at being extremely obvious and making up excuses not to. I returned to the lounge and mused over all of these thoughts until it was time to meet Seth.

He was already parked out on the road when I left the house, five minutes early. He waved over who seemed to be a pretty Indian girl in the passenger's seat, and I smiled in response, hitching my guitar more securely in my arms and walking out into the soft rain. I loved this place...

"Hi," I chirped happily, climbing into the back seat.

"Aubrey, this is my sister Leah. Leah, Aubrey." Ahhh, his sister. Wonderful!

"Hello," I gave her a smile as she turned over her shoulder, which she returned widely, and I couldn't help but think it was a smile which said she approved of me.

"It's nice to meet you, Aubrey."

"You, too."

I was quieter than usual during that car ride. I mostly watched Seth's hands on the steering wheel, because they interested me. Leah talked to Seth about a few things that I didn't really understand...that he'd done well with something. And that the guys back home thought he'd been talking it up. Every so often Seth would give me quick looks in the rear vision mirror, but we would both look away from each other and act as though it hadn't happened. Or maybe it was to make sure I was still here - he probably thought I was a crazy person that couldn't keep her mouth closed after last time I saw him.

He dropped Leah off at work - the place I knew Stacey worked at too, and then drove in the direction of the area we'd met where I typically busked. I climbed into the passenger's seat and clipped myself in, looking out of the window at the pretty patterns the rain made on the road in front of us. My heart started getting a little faster as I pushed myself to say what needed to be out in the open.

"Just so you know, I don't usually go to coffee with random guys I meet on the street."

He looked at me from the corner of his eye, then back to the road. "Why me?"

"I don't know," I said honestly, pulling my feet up onto the seat and hugging my knees. "I just...I kind of felt really safe around you as soon as you started talking to me. That's weird, isn't it?" I almost kicked myself for saying that. Yes, that was weird! But it was true. I hadn't even noticed the anxiety in my stomach until he'd invited me to coffee. Being with him that afternoon had made me more comfortable then I could remember. It was the same now, though I was still keeping a wary watch on what I had to say.

He was silent for a few seconds. "No, I don't think so." I felt relieved at that, and kept watching him until he spoke again, more loudly this time. "So, are you gonna let me buy you lunch again today?"

"Oh, you don't have to wait around while I play." I assured him.

"I want to." he insisted. I tried not to smile too widely, then nodded. He wanted to! He wanted to spend time with me!

"Okay, then. But I get to buy you lunch next weekend."

"Fine," he sighed, and I grinned because I was going to hold him to that.

Conversation came easy between Seth and me. I realised he laughed a lot at what I had to say, and I spent a lot more time laughing than I normally would have, as well. Talking to him was fun. I was a little self-conscious about speaking about certain things, just in case I came across as a crazy person or an immature loser, but he never put me down or looked at me strangely when I did let something slip. It was nice.

He parked the car not too far away from my usual busking place and insisted on carrying my guitar, throwing it over his shoulder and digging his hands deep into his pockets. His arms looked strained, as if he were forcing them to stay where they were.

"You sister seems really nice."

He grinned and let out a snort and I raised an eyebrow. "What was that?"

He was still chuckling - adorably...can I say that? - when he looked down at me and shook his head. "I can't remember the last time someone said that to me...or if they ever had."

"Why not? She was lovely!"

"She doesn't get along with too many of my friends...she was going through a rough patch a couple of years ago and they don't really want to give her another chance." He sighed.

"Oh...that's really sad. Is she okay now?"

"She's a lot better than she was."

I didn't want to pry on their family business, so I let it go. Seth didn't take long to strike up conversation again. "How did you spend your morning?"

"Owen came over." I kept my eyes straight ahead, but noticed how his head turned sharply in my direction...a movement that made me just a tiny bit hopeful. "He decided to surprise me because he was bored." I scoffed. "I think my sister enjoys his company ten times as much as I do."

"You don't like having him around?"

"I just...oh, this is gonna sound so bad. I...just get through half a conversation with him and realise I would rather have stayed in bed. Or gone swimming in these freezing temperatures." I breathed into my hands and Seth threw his head back and laughed. I looked up at him and smiled. He looked so wonderful when he laughed. I suppose that was good, seeing as he did it an awful lot. His teeth were so white in comparison to his pretty brown skin...and the way his eyes crinkled at the sides...

"Here?" he stopped and I looked around, spotting the orange tree I always took my place under. "Oh. Yeah, thanks."

He _did _stay the entire time I played, sitting on the bench just behind me and to my right. I wouldn't admit I held myself differently, how I thought was more attractive, just in case he was watching too closely.

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	5. Boats and Birds

**Pinkkitten1, ScarlettFire93, miramisa90212, Deadtom77, Shouldna, rowandasky, jule and my guest reviewers have made my cheeks ache from smiles! I don't hear from too many people, but reviews are definitely what keeps me posting.**

**Hope the rest of you are enjoying, too! I would love to hear from you! :)**

**If you be my star,  
I'll be your sky,  
You can hide underneath me and come out at night,  
When I turn jet black and you show off your light,  
I live to let you shine**

_-Boats and Birds_, Gregory and the Hawk

* * *

**Chapter Four - If You be My Star, I'll be Your Sky**

**Seth's POV**

I groaned and rolled over, trying to escape a terrible dream. Oh, wait...nope, that was real. I opened my eyes a fraction and listened closely to see whether Mom or Leah were going to get the door, but apparently not.

It was half-past six in the morning. What the heck? Then I remembered I would be able to go to Port Angeles and see Aubrey sing in four and a half hours and I wanted to just go back to sleep until it was time to leave so I wouldn't be anticipating it all morning.

I smiled despite the situation I was in and climbed out of bed, walking my shoulder into my door on the way out because I hadn't opened it properly.

There was one more timid knock on the front door and I opened it with my eyes still half-closed, my hand rising to my face to rub them and wake them up completely when I saw who was standing on the opposite side.

"Aubrey!"

"I'm sorry it's super early, Seth." she apologized in a whisper, glancing at my bare torso and looking away quickly. "I just needed someone to talk to, and you were the first person I thought of, but then I thought of Stacey because she's so much closer, _then_ I remembered that she sleeps in on Sundays and she gets in a really bad mood when she's grumpy. Trust me, I woke her to talk last month and I think she's still a little pissed at me over it. But it's okay, because she didn't hit me. She just closed the door in my face."

I frowned, and she continued. "Stacey was the one who gave me your address, by the way. I asked her the other day, just in case. You don't mind, do you? Oh, I'm sorry, I woke you up! You always seemed like an early riser to me. I always have been, ever since the bakery I used to work in. And I always need to talk in the mornings, because I've had dreams that bring things up -"

"I can tell," I yawned widely.

Her face fell the slightest of amounts. "Did you want me to leave? I'll go home, if you want. I just thought for some reason you'd be up...I didn't even think about the time -"

"No, come in," I took her hand without thinking and pulled her inside. As soon as her fingers wound around mine I looked down at them in shock. Aubrey Grace Butterfield was holding _my _hand as we walked through my house...

She threw her bright yellow coat onto the couch and fell down on it heavily. "Wow...this is one of the comfiest lounges I've ever sat on!" she said, bouncing slightly. "It's old, isn't it? They're always the best." She suddenly put her hands to her mouth. "Is your family still asleep? Did you want to go somewhere else?"

"Yeah...Leah gets in a worse mood than Stacey ever would...come on."

We made our way to my room and she hopped up onto my bed at once, pulling her feet up and wrapping her arms around her knees as I'd seen her do numerous times before in the short time I'd known her.

"What's wrong, Aubrey?" I asked, sitting down next to her and trying to ignore the wonderful fact that she was making herself so comfortable in my home without being hesitant at all.

She sighed dramatically and turned to me with a sad face. I immediately wanted to take her in my arms and hug her for hours, but then she started speaking again. "I don't know, Seth!" Her eyebrows pulled together sadly. "I think it's just me, but I'm not sure because you already know I never had a boyfriend before Owen. Have you had a girlfriend before? Of course you have...look at you." she laughed airily as she looked at my stomach again and I felt a surge of confidence before I jumped up to grab a shirt.

"I don't know...I just think that I should like Owen a lot more than I do. Because everyone says he's good looking and everything and _he_ asked _me_ out and said I was pretty and he told me once he liked the song I was singing...I just thought I would like my boyfriend more than I seem to." she was staring at the floor now, her chin on her knees.

"I think it's just me...he's nice and everything. Except for when he tells me I'm annoying because I talk so much." She crossed her legs and turned to look at me. "He irritates me, Seth. Is it the same with every relationship, or is it just because I'm being too difficult? I think I expect too much..."

"Um...I'm not sure, Aubrey." I took a really long breath. "I've only ever had one girlfriend before, and it didn't last too long, but she wasn't _annoying." _I wondered if there was anything I could say that would make her want to break up with this Owen guy, but wouldn't seem like I was going for that. Maybe something that would make me seem like the kind of guy she needed? "I never thought she'd be the kind of person I'd spend the rest of my life with, but I didn't mind being with her. I'm sure, after a month and a bit, you guys should be past any annoying stuff. Do you spend much time with each other?"

"Sometimes," she mused quietly. "I don't ever let him stay around for long. I've never been to his house before. And he tried to kiss me the other night - ugh! I didn't let him. _That's_ weird, isn't it? Poor Owen." she looked up at me with wider eyes than usual, and I studied all of the different colors in them. Green, brown, little flecks of gold...

"There _is_ something wrong with the two of us, isn't there? If I don't want to kiss him, there must be...I always just wanted to kiss one person in my life." she snorted and shook her head. "I think Disney ruined my chances of ever having a relationship. All I've ever wanted is one person. Like, a perfect person. And I kept telling myself they didn't exist, because everyone laughed at me when I told them that." She glanced at me for one second, sighed and looked out of the window. It was pouring rain again. "I guess I won't be singing today..."

I wondered if I should say something else. She'd kind of answered all of her own questions, and she seemed to have finished the conversation and was more interested in the rain anyway.

"What're you doing today, Seth?" she asked quietly, not taking her eyes from the window.

"I was going to watch you sing, but I guess I'll just be hanging around here now."

"Would you mind if I stuck with you for a little while? I don't have anything to do today...if you don't mind. I wouldn't want to ruin your day or anything. Or just push myself into your life more than you'd like. Actually, I'm really, really sorry about coming over this morning, Seth. You really were the first person I thought of, though. Is _that_ weird? We haven't known each other very long, but I think you're one of my best friends." At this point I was feeling like the luckiest guy in the world, and also wanting to run outside and scream just a little bit.

"I just feel like I can tell you anything." She turned to give me an adorable little smile. "Thank you for coming over to talk that day. If you hadn't, I'd be feeling pretty lonely. I don't have many friends in America."

"You'll meet them. I have a ton if you want to borrow some." She laughed and put her hand on my shoulder, shaking it gently.

"If I start to annoy you, just tell me, won't you? I feel like I've latched onto you."

"Not at all." Was it okay to assure her by putting my hand on her forearm? Oh, well. Too late now...

"This is just the first time I haven't had one person around me to throw everything at. Like Mae. Mae was my other half in Australia. We used to talk about the most ridiculous things in the world, but they could be so serious between us." Her lips pressed into a pout and I couldn't remember how to move my eyes away, then she looked back up at me. "Do you mind being my other half here?"

I grinned widely, and for a second, couldn't remember how to speak English. Or the small amount of Quileute I could manage.

We talked until quarter past nine, then my bedroom door opened and my mom stuck her head in, a repressed, but very excited smile forming on her face. "Oh, hello," she said, stepping gently into the room. I'd heard her wake up about ten minutes ago and ask Leah who was in here with me, and Leah had let her know of the morning's events. She must have been awake and listening to us for a while. I couldn't blame her for coming in to pry. "I'm Sue, Seth's mom," she held out her hand.

Aubrey leaned forward and took it with a wide smile. "I'm Aubrey Grace Butterfield." I smirked at this. I'd heard her introduce herself to a few people other than myself, mostly people who stopped on the street while listening to her, and she's always given them her full name.

"It's nice to meet you, Aubrey Grace Butterfield." Mom laughed. I shook my head at her in the background, though Aubrey giggled, too. "Are you going to stay for breakfast? Seth's a wonderful cook."

"Oh! Oh, that would be lovely, thank you!" Aubrey said, her voice getting higher with excitement. My mother gave the two of us one last smile and left my room, closing the door behind her. Aubrey turned to me again and smiled brightly. "You have a lovely family." she commented. "Or, what I've met of them anyway. Do you have any other siblings? Is your dad here? Is he working? My dad gets up really early." she waited for my answer, and I looked at the door uneasily, not wanting to break her spirit.

"Ahh...no, he died a few years ago." I was perfectly fine speaking about my father now, but I knew it would be hard to cope through making Aubrey uncomfortable.

She looked mortified. She shook her head and wrapped her arms around my shoulders, shocking me once more. Her hair smelled so good... "I'm sorry, Seth." She said as I wrapped my arms lightly around her back and wondered if that was okay. I hoped her head wasn't in a position where she could hear my heart going frantic at how close she was. "See? I really do have to get more control over my mouth." She pulled back to look at me sadly.

"No, don't worry about it." I assured her. "It was long enough for me not to be sad anymore and just concentrate on the good parts. And we all knew it was coming, sooner or later. We're alright to talk about it."

"You see so much good in the world." she said gently, biting her lip. "And you're always really warm..."

I pulled my eyes off the deep pick flesh her teeth were digging into and looked at my wall. "Are you hungry? Mom and Leah are probably in the kitchen." She nodded and let me help her down from my bed - it was one of those really tall ones, and she'd had to actually jump to get up there.

We walked to the kitchen in silence, Aubrey slightly behind me but keeping close.

"Hi, Leah," she greeted my sister, who swallowed a mouthful of coffee and smiled at her.

"It's nice to see you again, Aubrey." she raised her eyebrows at me as Aubrey moved to the stove and offered to help Mom, who had started making breakfast despite mentioning my skills earlier on. Cooking was one of the only things my family insisted I do from time to time. Our family dinners were always a blast, with me and Emily contributing to the feast. Ran in our blood, apparently. That much was clear, with Dad's cooking skills, too.

"Seth, did you want to take over?" Mom asked, as if she could read my thoughts. I took her place, and Aubrey stayed beside me and watched as I sorted through the huge amount of food before us.

"What can I do?"

She agreed on watching the eggs while I cut up tomatoes, mushrooms and bacon and cooked them in my own pan and stood the entire time, poking at them with her spatula. She would watch me expertly cut through the vegetables every now and then, and I thanked my wolf hands for being able to move so impressively.

"You're not cooking all of that!"

"Yeah?"

"There are only four of us!"

"It's like there's ten with these two around." Mom assured her from the table. "My children eat like starving animals. And then, you never know who might show up. The boys around here seem to think every home is their own."

Mom and Leah eventually settled into a quiet conversation about what they were getting Kim for her birthday behind us, but I wasn't listening. I was intrigued by Aubrey humming as she cooked the eggs. I kept my eye on them as well, because she'd already let me know she wasn't allowed in the kitchen at her house.

"Does anyone like the white part of the eggs? Because they can have mine. I only like the yo - ow!" She jumped back from the pan which had just let out a loud spitting noise, bumping into my arm and sending the knife I was holding straight into where my thumb met the rest of my hand.

"Sorry, the bacon spat at me. I - oh my gosh, Seth! I'm so sorry!" She gushed as soon as she saw the tight line my lips were pressed into and noticed my hand. She pulled it to herself immediately as my palm filled with blood and attempted to drag me to the tap. "I'm the worst in the world! Do you need to go to hospital? Can you move your thumb? It didn't go through the bone, did it?"

I pulled my hand out of her grasp before she had the chance to see it heal itself in any way and leaned over the tap to clear it, blocking her eyesight. "It's fine, Aubrey, it doesn't hurt." Holy shit, mother of all things evil, it hurt like a bitch! "Can you just get a Band-Aid from that white box in the cupboard above the stove? It's not too deep."

She actually had to stand on one of the bottom shelves to reach it as Mom ran forward to check on my hand, not as worried as she would have been if she hadn't known I would most likely be completely fine in a matter of minutes. Aubrey handed me a normal-sized Band-Aid, asking if it was big enough and I accepted. It was only so she wouldn't see it healing so quickly - it didn't matter if it didn't fit.

"I'm sorry Seth!" she blubbered over and over again. She and Leah just made it to the stove in time to save breakfast. I kept assuring her that I was fine and it didn't hurt much, and then she rubbed her arm and I remembered what this was all over in the first place.

"Are you okay?"

"Huh?" she looked confused.

"Your arm. You burnt it, didn't you?"

She looked at me like I had two heads. "Don't ask me if my tiny little bacon fat burn's okay when I almost dismembered your thumb! You're a crazy person!"

I grabbed her arm and pulled it from where she had it crossed tightly over her chest. There was a small red mark halfway up her forearm. "Nope, I'm sorry. I'll have to take you to the hospital." I joked in a serious tone. She rolled her eyes, but her lips formed a small smile. "Does it hurt?" I asked, again serious. I honestly wanted to know if she was okay. She shook her head, keeping her mouth closed for once. "I think you should have a Band-Aid." I grinned and reached for one.

Leah had to work at eleven and Mom left for Charlie's almost straight after. I knew for a fact Charlie would be working and when I brought this up she insisted she had to start his dinner. I think she just wanted to give me alone time with Aubrey, though. I'd already told them she had a boyfriend while they were interrogating me one day, so I didn't really know what her whole plan was.

"Were you doing to do anything today? Other than going to Port Angeles." Aubrey smiled and waited for me to answer.

"Ah...no. I think I would've spent the day napping, actually."

"There is good nap weather around here." she agreed quietly.

"I could show you around LaPush?"

"Ooh, okay!" her eyes brightened and she sat up straighter. "You have a beach, don't you? Owen asked if I'd go surfing with him and a few of his friends once the weather was warmer, but I don't know how to surf." Her eyes glazed over as she slumped back in the chair. "He didn't believe me because I'm Australian..."

"You don't have to get in the water." I laughed. "But I'll take you there. Just let me go put on some real pants..."

Ten minutes later we were walking toward First Beach. Aubrey waved to Embry's Mom as we walked past her store and I couldn't help grinning. I wondered if she could keep up in crowded areas...

We started up a game like 20 Questions, but Aubrey said we should just wait and see how many we actually ask before we name it. Somewhere through it the questions stopped being asked altogether and we were just spitting facts at each other. It carried on and soon we found ourselves sitting on First Beach, the sky occasionally sprinkling but agreeing with us and holding out on rain.

"I love sunflowers."

"I play along with prank calls."

"I'm amazing with a hula hoop."

"It took me three weeks to find a bed comfortable enough for me to sleep in after my last growth spurt."

"I can believe that." She giggled. "How tall are you?"

"Six-four. What about you?"

"Five-five!" She exclaimed loudly. I almost jumped. "We have magic heights!"

"How?" My face couldn't seem to keep the smile away when she got excited like this.

"Six-four and five-five! Because if you take one off the six and add it to the four it's five-five!"

"I never would have thought about that. Ahhh...I'm really good at saving my money."

"I did ballet for years, but none of my friends know."

"I have an addiction to cheese and tomato sandwiches."

"I'm a dog person."

"Really?" She nodded, smiling back at me. "Good. I am, too."

"I have a dog back at home." She said sadly. "She's a blue cattle dog. Her name is Shartzi."

"Shartzi," I repeated.

"Say the R like an H and you've got it." She laughed.

"Shah-tzi." I said, smirking."

"That's pretty close," she said, imitating an American accent, then she covered her mouth and her eyes grew wide. "I just realized how much my dog's name sounds like 'Nazi'!"

"Was that part of the game? I've never tried an Australian accent."

"Was that an addition? Or are you gonna try it?" She raised her eyebrows.

I was just about to open my mouth to speak, when her attention was pulled elsewhere. "Hey there, Seth."

I closed my eyes, annoyed, and looked up to see the three guys towering over us. "Bit cold for cut-offs, isn't it?"

"Who's this?" Collin asked, ignoring my question and giving Aubrey a sly smile. They knew very well who she was. She smiled back, but looked a little wary.

"This is Aubrey. Aubrey, this is Collin, Embry and Logan." I said their names in order and she repeated them as she climbed to her feet and offered them her hand.

"Nice to meet you." she said as she shook their hands and sat back down, curling in on herself to stay warm. "Why doesn't anyone around here feel the cold?" I could tell she was trying to get her shivering under control again.

"What - Seth didn't even offer to hug you?" Embry asked. I shook my head at him desperately. I didn't want to try anything and get pushed away. I'd been reminding myself constantly while we were walking of her boyfriend when her hand got so close to my own. Embry sighed and sat down on the other side of her, wrapping his arm around her shoulders and pulling her into him. "Now, I know I'm not as hot as Seth..." he lowered his mouth to her ear and stage-whispered: 'In more ways than one," he sat back at the look on my face and continued. "But this will have to do for now." Aubrey giggled and leaned into Embry's side and wanted to kick him in the face. Probably not the best idea with my fragile imprint in between us.

"Well, thanks for warming me up anyway."

"That's fine. I'll just stay here until your teeth let up chattering." He gave me a theatrical wink as I fed him the filthiest look I could manage.

"So, you're from Australia, huh?" Collin asked as he and Logan sat themselves on the ground in front of us. "I didn't know they sounded like you do. They're different on TV, you know."

"You leave out your Rs."

"Unless the word ends in one and the following word starts with a vowel." I said immediately. The four of them turned their heads to stare at me with wondering expressions.

"How did you pick up on that?" Aubrey asked with her little smile.

I shrugged. "I just like listening to how you talk."

"Aw, that's lovely and all." Embry said, standing from his place and mussing Aubrey's hair. "But Logan and I are working right now and have to get back, or Jake's gonna have our heads. He's helping," he nodded toward Collin. "Bored with his life on a Sunday." He shook his head in disapproval.

"How'd you find me here?"

"We smelled you." Logan laughed, though I knew he was serious. They must've just been running in the wrong place at the wrong time.

"We'll see you later, Seth."

"Not if I can help it." I muttered as they made their way back off the beach.

"They were really nice." Aubrey mused once they were out of sight. "Scary-looking, but nice. Why are you all so huge?"

"Quileute thing, I suppose."

"I'm cold again." She leaned into my side and grabbed my hand to wrap around my shoulders while I was cursing my heart for going insane once again. "I don't know what's wrong with you and your friends, but I wish I was as warm."


	6. Love Is Waiting

_Pinkkitten1, dawnmac, Deadtom77, rowandasky, and my guest reviewers are beautiful, wonderful people and thank you for reviewing!_

_I'm not really sure whether it's the fact that I'm posting my chapters at the wrong time, or if people aren't just taking an interest in this, but I feel like I'm having a lack of reviews and that kind of makes me wonder if there are many people enjoying this. I'm a bit upset because I've been having so much fun with this story and I wanted to start updating a couple of times a week starting from today. So please, if you are interested, let me know, because I'm feeling a little down._

**It's my caution, not the cold,  
There's no other hand that I would rather hold,  
The climate changes, I'm singing for strangers,  
About you**

-_Love is Waiting,_ Brooke Fraser

* * *

**Chapter Five - Love is Waiting**

The people who hadn't heard enough about the perfect new addition to my life were who I considered my second family: the Cullens.

I'd always gotten along great with Bella and Edward, and once I got to know the rest of them, I couldn't see what all the fuss with my brothers was about. I know it was supposed to be against who we were and whatever to not like them, but they were really great people. It was a lot better now, though. Back before Bella had changed and had Renesmee I was basically considered a freak for being friends with Edward. Then Jake split up from Sam's pack and things went down, and now just about everyone can tolerate them. There are a few newer wolves who don't want anything to do with them, but it's just because they think they'll get their heads ripped off.

Jake basically lived at their place full-time now, only staying at Billy's at night. I knew it was hard for him to leave Nessie - I wished my whole imprint deal was out in the open and Aubrey's family knew so I could sleep under the same roof and know she was safe all the time, but Jake's imprint was under different circumstances. I was welcomed as warmly as he was by the Cullens and spent a lot of time there myself. More warmly, I suppose, because Rosalie was known for her arguments with Jake, while she never snapped at me.

"Seth!" Nessie's bright voice greeted me as I made it to the door and I held out my arms just in time for her to throw herself at me and lock her hands around my neck. She'd stopped growing before she'd turned five and was around the same height as Aubrey now, so our greeting had become a little more uncomfortable than it used to be. Nothing we couldn't handle, though.

I swung her around once while squeezing her in a bear hug and put her back down on her feet. Jake walked up behind her and gave me a friendly hit to the shoulder. "Edward only asked about you this morning. They were worried because you hadn't been visiting as often."

"I've had a lot on my mind." I sighed.

Nessie jumped on the spot and Jake put his hand on her shoulders to keep her still. "Your imprint! You imprinted! Aubrey? Jake hasn't told me _anything._"

"Haven't met her." Jake mumbled as the three of us walked back to the huge white couch.

Nessie always knew the basics about imprinting, but Jacob agreed with Edward not to let her know absolutely everything until it was clear Nessie wanted him as much as he wanted her. She looked like an adult now, and it had only been a few months after her '18th' birthday party for them to change their relationship to what it was now.

"That's not an excuse, Jacob. I know you've seen everything Seth knows about her while you're on patrol together." She turned back to me and raised her eyebrows in question. "Jake said she's pretty. Is she blonde?"

"No, she has brown hair. Bit darker than yours."

"How tall is she?"

"Five-foot-five."

"And she's from Forks?"

"Nope, She only moved to Forks a few months ago. She's Australian."

"Ooh! Wow, you were so lucky to meet her!"

"Excuse me!" A voice chirped from over my shoulder. I jumped and Alice pretended not to notice as she sat herself on the floor at our feet. "How dare you start this conversation while I'm not here?"

"You didn't miss anything. You would've been listening from upstairs."

She shrugged. "Still, I couldn't incorporate from up there, could I?" She turned her head to look at me. "Has anything happened between the two of you yet?"

I sighed and scratched my head. "Ahh, no. She has a boyfriend. Owen, his name is. I haven't met him. He sounds like a real -"

"Language, Seth," I heard Edward's voice call from somewhere upstairs.

"Sorry! Yeah, he kind of seems like a - like an idiot."

"Did you want me to drink him dry for you?" Alice joked, then turned serious at my hopeless expression. "Don't worry, Seth. She'll come around real soon."

"Can you be positive about that?" I asked hopefully. Had she seen something?

"No, I don't know who she is. How could I be keeping an eye on her? And you're just going to make it harder, getting in the way. I was just saying that for my sake, as well as yours. Imagine how much fun we could have with a new girl around! I think it's time Nessie got a friend around her own age."

"I agree." Nessie informed us. "I always manage to feel inferior around all the other imprint girls. They saw me grow up, so they're always going to seem that much older than me. But Aubrey's my age! And she's not in the know about my family. She hasn't grown up with all the legends like everyone else has. It's brilliant."

"Well, she'll know eventually." Jake put in.

"She doesn't have to find out before she meets us, though." Alice reminded us. "Ooh, Seth, I'm so happy for you! Now bring her around so I can start keeping tabs on her! And do _something_ to get rid of that boyfriend of hers. If I hear they're getting married a couple of years from now and you're in the wedding I am going to be so mad at you!"

"I'll do my best."

Jake came back to my place to eat that night before we spent the hours after on patrol.

"You got Ness excited."

"Yeah," I laughed, "How bad would it be if they didn't get along?" I imagined Aubrey and Nessie together, and couldn't really see how they _wouldn't_ get along. They both wrapped everyone they met around their fingers, from what I'd seen. And they had that whole looking-like-an-angel thing going for the both of them...

I threw a smile to Jake across the table and he frowned. "What're you planning?"

"How great would it be if they _did_ hit it off? The four of us are basically sitting around doing nothing, when you're not working and Nessie's not having lessons. I could bring her up to the house every time I visit. Jake, this'll be great."

"Ness and Alice got to you." He shook his head. "Naw, but you're probably right. Nessie's been considering starting school just so she can get a better idea of meeting people her own age. I mean, the age she looks. She wanted to keep going with her lessons at home, though, so this could be like a stepping stone into that for her. She's been really excited."

}~*~{

We only had one car to our place, and Leah and I had the house to ourselves for the day while Mom was at Charlie's. I was off to try to find myself a real job and agreed to drop Leah off at work on my way through to Port Angeles. I was glad I wasn't the only one who had to put in for gas. All the trips into Port Angeles were making it a bit more expensive than usual.

Leah and Stacey were starting their shift at the same time, and Leah insisted it would be that much easier for her just to pick her up on the way. I waited for Stacey to make her way out to us, my eyes locked on the small yellow car just a few houses away, and wished I had an excuse to go and knock on Aubrey's door. Maybe I could make Leah hit me with our car out the front of her house? Surely that would be enough to get her outside.

"Morning, Seth."

"Oh, hey Stace." She climbed into the backseat and I unwillingly pulled away from the curb and drove the short distance to the store they worked in together. Stacey left the car almost immediately, while Leah hung back to put her shoes on her feet. As the door opened, I caught the very faint smell of vanilla, chocolate and peppermint. Something I wouldn't have even taken notice of if I hadn't spent so many hours thinking how wonderful that very scent was...

My head snapped up to look along the row of stores on the left-hand side of the road. There was a group of people around a table outside the cafe. A couple of them were standing around with bikes, while others were sitting in the silver chairs. It took me less than half a second to feel my stomach flip when I noticed the long dark hair of the girl with her back to me.

"Seth? Listen to me! Oh my God, you're a -"

"Wait," she must have caught on with my behavior, because she turned her head, too. She grinned when she followed my eye line and we both watched as Stacey exclaimed at the same time as she and Aubrey pulled each other into a tight hug.

"What are the chances?" Leah asked with a sly grin.

"Don't. Do. _Anything." _I hissed.

"You know I wouldn't. Let's have a stake-out."

"I thought you had to get to work?"

"I can handle being a couple of minutes late."

Stacey noticed Leah still hadn't made an appearance as she neared the end of her short conversation with Aubrey and turned toward the car. Leah waved her on frantically and Stacey got the idea, because she grinned before turning back around and raising her voice louder than was necessary. Obviously thinking we wouldn't be able to hear her otherwise. I doubt humans in our car would have been able to hear anything clearly at her new levels, anyway.

"Is this your boyfriend, Grace?"

"Owen," a guy I hadn't noticed before nodded toward Stacey, and it suddenly felt like someone had poured a bucket of iced water over my head. He was a little taller than Aubrey and had hair a similar light brown to his skin. His face wasn't anything too special, I was glad to see. I think I'd been imagining someone like the guys in the magazines Leah left on the kitchen table occasionally.

"Ugh, you're more attractive than he is," Leah said in a whisper.

"Why isn't Stacey going into the store?"

"She knows you like Aubrey. She's digging for information."

"Are you a singer like Grace, Owen?" Stacey asked. She sounded a little too interested to me, but apparently Owen didn't see anything sarcastic about what she had to say. Pfft, Owen.

"Nope. I'm getting myself into sports. Football, mostly."

"Great baseball player, though." Someone else interjected. "He'd be better going for that."

"You're not what I expected." Stacey didn't sound impressed, and Leah and I both tried not to laugh. "You'd better take care of this girl, though. Or you'll have to deal with me. You've fallen in love with a special girl."

A few of the people in the group laughed and Aubrey's hair got shorter, so I could tell she was looking at her feet. I didn't breathe until the idiot answered. He was laughing as he did so.

"I don't really think we're there yet. She's just my girlfriend." His tone of voice was questioning Stacey's sanity and I felt my fingers start to tremble. I tightened them on the steering wheel. It wasn't often that I couldn't control my temper. Seeing this undeserving piece of work who had everything I wanted and took her for granted right in front of me wasn't going too well.

"Don't phase in the car. I'm leaving." Leah whispered. She climbed out of the car, and I didn't know whether I was able to drive away just yet. I wanted Aubrey to turn around and see me, but I didn't want her to think I was watching what was going on.

"Leah! I forgot you were starting with me!" Stacey said happily. I hoped no one in their group had seen her get out of the same car only a few minutes before.

"Hey, Stacey. Oh - Aubrey! What are you doing here?"

"Owen surprised me with a morning out." She murmured, returning Leah's hug. There was something off about the way she was speaking. She didn't have that bright spark to her voice. It was lowered and sounded...guarded. As if she was watching what she said. I don't think I'd ever heard her speak such a small amount of words in such a long time before.

"That's nice." Leah's voice was less friendly now, too, and I hope she didn't take anything out on Aubrey for having a boyfriend. She was known for being unreasonable with a few things and I didn't want her to make Aubrey cry. "Stacey, we have to be going into work...what time is it..." I watched as she checked her pockets, then sighed and turned around. "Must've left my phone in the car. One second."

For the first time I looked at the passenger's seat and noticed Leah's missing phone on the seat. I threw her a filthy look as she leaned through the open window to retrieve it. "What are you doing?!"

"You're welcome," she said in a whisper, then more loudly. "Thanks for waiting, Seth!"

At the sound of my name Aubrey turned, and I made eye contact with her for the first time in a couple of days. I offered her a wave, and her face brightened before she started making her way to me. A few people from her group looked over curiously, but then turned their attention to Owen once she, Stacey and Leah were far enough away.

"Do you love her?" One of the girls joked as she pushed him in the shoulder.

"Shut up," Owen chuckled. "She hasn't even let me kiss her. How am I supposed to know if I can love her or not?"

My blood was boiling by the time Aubrey made it to the window.

"Hi," she said softly.

"Hey," both our voices were down, like we had something to be sad about.

"What are you up to today? I thought you'd be doing some jobs."

"I'm going to hand in my resume. Find a real job." I said with the best smile I could manage. I looked back at the group as they erupted into laugher and clenched my fingers even tighter on the wheel.

"Bet you'll never get to test her out; she's too much of a prude."

"She told me she's never even had a boyfriend before."

"There has to be something wrong with her if no one wanted her."

Aubrey was looking toward them, too, and I hoped she couldn't hear what they were saying. She turned back to me with a sad smile. "I bet they're talking about me."

"I'm sure they're not."

"Every time I go to the bathroom or something I get back and they're all laughing. Then the conversation turns boring and awkward again. I haven't really found my way into their group just yet."

"The guys at the beach seemed to like you the other day."

"Yeah, they were nice," she agreed. "It might take me a while to learn all their names, though. I can only remember Collin from the other day, and I don't even know which one he was."

"Embry was there, too. He was the one that warmed you up."

"Embry," she repeated. "Should've remembered that one; it sounds like my name."

"We'll probably be having a get-together on the beach soon enough. I'll invite you down. It never takes them too long to throw another one."

"That'd be awesome," she smiled her first real Aubrey-smile for the day and I couldn't resist smiling back. I noticed my fingers had stopped their shaking completely. "Wait - will there be other..." she paused and chewed on her lip and I saw a light blush on her cheeks. "Will there be any non-Natives there?"

"Yeah, Jake's girl will be there for sure. I think you guys would get on together really well. There might be a few others, but it all depends."

"Jake, as in your boss?"

"That's the one. Nessie's eighteen, too. And she's really easy to get along with. I can see you two being good friends."

"Good," her fingers curled around the window frame and she leaned into the car further. Her voice was almost a whisper when she spoke again. "Do you think they'd notice if I just drove off with you?"

"Probably; we're getting a visitor."

Owen himself was wandering up to the car curiously. Aubrey caught sight of him as soon as I'd let her know and her face fell back to guarded immediately as she fell back on her heels again.

"Who's this?" His ridiculous voice asked when he was close enough to keep conversation.

"Seth. I told you about him, remember? The one I met while I was busking."

"You keep saying that word and I don't know what it means." Owen chuckled.

"Seth, this is Owen." She didn't say anything else.

Owen leaned into the car and stretched out his arm and my fingers were shaking again violently as I took his hand. "The boyfriend," he told me. I squeezed his hand a little too tightly and he winced before jerking it back.

"Nice to meet you." I muttered.

He gave me a strange look for a few seconds and I stared him down before he put his arm around Aubrey. "Are you coming back? Our breakfast will be out in a second."

"'Kay," her eyes were on the ground as he attempted to steer her away from the car. She looked up at me as she turned. "See you, Seth."

"Soon," I said immediately. "I'm not up to anything this week, if you wanted to do something." I'm sure I could get away with not showing up for patrol if she came over at an inconvenient time for Jake.

I struggled to take deep breaths like I'd seen Leah do so many times and shook out my hands to make them steady again. I waited too long, though. Owen must have taken the words his friends were throwing around more seriously than was necessary, because he moved to stand directly in front of Aubrey just as I pulled away from the curb and I almost slammed down on the breaks when he took her face in one hand and put his face to hers at the same time. Her eyes went wide as he kissed her and her hands clenched to fists by her sides and I forced myself to keep driving as I felt my world break down around me. She looked like his, right in that moment. Even when she squirmed away from him and he finally broke away after an entire two-and-a-half seconds, the image of them together was fresh in my mind and I was trembling all over.

**Aubrey's POV**

I pushed away from Owen, still not completely sure of what was going on. Had that really just happened? Where had it come from?

I caught sight of Seth's car turning the corner just in front of us and felt as though my stomach had fallen into my feet. I hoped he hadn't seen, though I knew Owen would have only advanced on me for Seth's sake. He'd gone out of the way to show people I was his in the past, but usually finished just with wrapping his arm around me or something. I was shaken, and my friends could tell.

"That really was your first kiss, wasn't it?" Kara asked with a smirk. "You're supposed to just go with it."

"No offence or anything, but I don't really want to be kissing someone out on the street." I muttered. I tugged at the skirt of my dress and crossed my feet into an extremely tight third position, my entire body clenched up as I watched the people in front of me.

"There's no one around." Ben said as if I was crazy. I bit my lip so I wouldn't say anything else and let them laugh over it, trying not to let myself think too far into what had just happened.

I'd waited eighteen years for my first kiss and it was as horrible as that.

"Grace, why hadn't you had your first kiss yet?" Kara asked, dragging her hair over her shoulder. "You're pretty. You caught just about everyone's attention when you showed up here. Did you talk too much for them to try to kiss you?"

I looked at the ground as a couple of them chuckled. I was extremely self-conscious around these people and was proud of myself at how much I'd cut down on all the talking. Apparently they hadn't noticed.

"It wasn't like I hadn't had propositions." I said stiffly. "I was just...I was waiting. Until I knew."

"Until you found love?" Someone joked in the same tone they'd used with their remarks when Stacey had asked earlier earlier. I didn't look up to see who it was. They laughed again, and I wished more than anything I could leave respectfully. I knew I would just make everything worse if I left now though, so I would wait.

I didn't talk to anyone when I got home. I send an emergency text message to Mae (something I only did under extreme circumstances, because it cost so much sending them out to Australia) and hoped she would be available to talk. I then ran a bubble bath as full as I could manage and set my laptop up in front of me. Mae video called me not too long after and I sighed in relief an answered.

"Hi,"

"Ahh, you're naked!" She laughed. "Wait, I'll run a bath, too. This looks important."

It only took five minutes for the both of us to be surrounded by white bubbles and she looked at me compassionately. "What happened? Is the weather over there getting you down?"

"You know I prefer this weather." I sighed. I pursed my lips. "It's Owen. And Seth, I suppose, too."

"Spill it. What did Owen do now?"

"You really didn't mind him, did you?"

"No!" I watched as she shrugged. "He seemed like an alright guy. A dickhead, of course, but that's to be expected, isn't it? He was just like anyone else over here. What surprised me was that you allowed him to ask you out. You usually push them away before they can manage."

"Peer pressure." I muttered. There was a long, silent moment before I was brave enough to look her in the eye again. "He kissed me today."

"Ooh! Really? Did the advice I gave you help at all?"

"You did not give me advice!" I snorted. "You made me sit there and listen as you explained absolutely everything about your first kiss with Drew!"

"Yeah," she giggled. "Wait, tell me about it."

"He did it because Seth was around, I think." I said, more quietly than before. "Seth was driving down the street and he just grabbed me and kissed me in front of all of his friends. I hardly knew what was happening and I kind of...tried to curl up in the fetal position while I was standing. He got the idea and backed off straight away, but everyone was laughing and it just made me feel like an idiot." I pulled my knees up to my chest and rested my chin on them and Mae pouted on the screen in front of me.

"Did you want me to slap him for you?"

"If you find a way to, you're perfectly welcome."

"But wait, wait, wait, what about the Seth part?!" I sucked in a tight breath as I wondered what to say now. "Why was Owen jealous? Was Seth flirting with you?"

"No - I don't think so. He just mentioned that he was free all week. I told him he was my other half in America and was the person I had the least trouble talking to, so I think that's all he meant by it. He knows I've been a bit frustrated lately."

"Sexually?" Mae laughed, then sighed when I rolled my eyes at her. "I feel replaced."

"Don't. I love my Mae."

"Good. If you forget about me while you're getting famous singing in America I'm going to be very upset."

I laughed, and she raised her eyebrow to tell me to get on with it. I groaned and put my face in my hands, getting bubbles in my hair. "He's so pretty, Mae."

"Why don't you just murder Owen and get it on with Seth, then?! I can tell you like him! And it's weird, because I was beginning to believe you were a-sexual!"

We both laughed at the same time. We'd always known that wasn't true, but I'd never managed to get a crush on someone I knew in real life. Just Aladdin and a couple of actors.

"I don't really know why Owen keeps me around. We don't really have much in common at all...and I don't think he likes talking to me. No, I don't think he likes me talking to him." I rolled my eyes. "He just came at the wrong time. If I'd kept up with my old habits I'd still be single and it would be fine that I want to hold Seth's hand and kiss him on the nose."

Mae gasped and leaned forward so fast bubbly water sloshed up dangerously close to where I knew the laptop was resting. "Did I just hear Grace Butterfield say she wanted to kiss someone?!"

"On the nose," I clarified seriously.

"Yes, yes, yes, _still." _ She shook her head as if I was mad and gathered a handful of bubbles. "This is Owen," she then proceeded to slap her hands together and bits of bubbles exploded into her face. I giggled along with her.

"Grace, my darling Grace," she sang. "If you don't think Owen cares that much for you, you should just break up with him. It sounds like it'll make you both happy. I mean, I only spoke to him for five minutes until he left last time you called me, but he didn't seem like a terrible guy. From what you've told me he likes being a player, though, so...maybe he does like being single more than having a girlfriend."

"Then why would he ask me out?!" I cried.

"You know the answer to that." Mae wasn't looking at me now. She inspected one of her nails - which I knew would be absolutely perfect, because her nails always were - and continued this way. "You're something new - _Australian._ You said it was a tiny town; obviously you're an exciting new addition. And we don't need to bring up what you look like."

"I don't think I'm pretty." I muttered.

"Stop that. I'll slap you, too."

"I don't, Mae."

"I bet Seth does." she made a kissy face at me and I took a deep breath before pulling my head underwater. I counted the seconds, while still listening to my friend. I heard her laugh for the first ten seconds, and then she stopped and waited for me. When I got to one minute and twenty-seven seconds she asked for me, her voice slightly worried. I let little amounts of air from my lungs from time to time, small enough so she wouldn't notice. She began calling for me more loudly, and I held out as long as I could before breaking the surface again.

"Oh! I almost beat my record, too!"

"How long were you under that time? I thought you'd drowned, you bitch!"

"One minute, forty-four. Five seconds off my last record. I blame you."

"Is it snowing over there?" She asked curiously.

I shook my head and looked out of the dark window above me. "Nope. There's been frost, though. That's exciting. It's freezing!"

"Perfect for snuggling with buff tanned guys, if you ask me."

I pretended to splash water at her and she laughed. "Did you get a photo for me to see? I'm curious."

"I'm not just going to ask Seth if I can take a photo of him." I rolled my eyes and Mae frowned at me.

"Next time you get even the slightest chance..."

"Just for you, Mae."


	7. Eyes of a Child

_To jul, DLR25, Pinkkitten1, rowandasky, Shouldna, Avalongirl55, yasybelle and my guest reviewers, thank you so, so much! I can't even tell you how happy I am to hear from all of you! I want to send you all hugs with this chapter because you made me smile so much my cheeks hurt!_

_Not too many people are happy with Owen. Don't worry, he'll be out of the picture soon enough!_

_It's confusing writing chapters in both Aubrey and Seth's perspectives - I write normally for Aubrey, and then have to remember to change to the way words are written in America for Seth. I imagine it would be easier if I had spellcheck. Sorry if there's any drastic mistakes!_

_Hope this chapter is enjoyed enough to get me another response! I'm having so much fun talking to you guys!_

**Take me back to those innocent hours,**  
**Where time flies and truth lies,**  
**Take me back when the world was ours,**  
**Forever and together,**  
**Hey, let's look a while,**  
**Through the eyes of a child**_  
_

_-Eyes of a Child, _Ramin Karimloo

* * *

**Chapter Six - Eyes of a Child**

**Aubrey's POV**

I kind of left all of my burdens on Seth. He was big and strong. He could handle anything I told him. And the best thing of all was that he really seemed to want to hear what I was going to say and encouraged me to talk and it made me feel good about things I would otherwise have felt iffy about.

Another good thing was that he never minded what the time was when I wanted to talk.

"It's going to be another grey day today," I sung one morning on the long lawn behind Seth's house. It was just dawn, and the clouds were attempting to pick up the yellows and pinks I missed seeing. I new it would all just be numerous shades of grey in a matter of minutes. I dropped onto the home-made tree swing and lamely swayed from side to side as he stood behind me. "Unusual, that."

He laughed quietly, but it wasn't the free kind of laugh he usually gave - the kind of laugh that was just so _Seth_ and made me feel so happy to be near him - and he took a seat on the damp ground beside my swing. "What's wrong, Aubrey?"

"Well," I took the time to pull my feet up onto the swing with me, hanging onto the ropes tightly incase I slipped off. "You know I was with Owen yesterday." I didn't look down at him, and I could see in my peripheral vision that he didn't look in my direction, either.

"Yes,"

"Did you see him kiss me?" I asked quietly.

He waited a very long time to answer, and I didn't know what was going to come out of his mouth next. I finally looked down at him, and his eyes looked panicked. He was trying to think of the best answer, I think.

"Yes." Was finally his answer.

Now I paused for a long time. I wanted to keep on this subject with him, and that scared me a little bit. But I cared. I cared more than I should have. "I'm upset with him. I'm angry because I can't take that back and I didn't allow him to do that."

Seth didn't say anything.

"I mean, I stopped him after a few seconds, but that's not the point because it happened and I was going to wait and now I can't wait anymore. Do you think I took that too seriously? All of my friends have kissed people before and they told me to stop being so focused on it and just have fun. That was months ago."

"Was it...Owen? Or was it...did you just not want to kiss anyone?" He asked, his sentences choppy in some places and rushed in others. We still weren't looking at each other, though we would occasionally glance in the other's direction.

"Umm...Owen. It's the fact that it was Owen, I think. No, wait, that came out wrong. I wouldn't just go up to a random person and kiss them. But Owen annoys me so much lately that I know it pissed me off more than it would have had it been someone else. Because my standards are too high and I can't be reasonable enough to treat him how I'm supposed to. To _like_ him like I'm supposed to."

"Why did you start going out with him if you keep thinking like this?" He sighed. I was taken aback. I'd never heard Seth speak like that before. He kind of sounded...frustrated. It was strange. It didn't sound like him.

"He was really nice to me when I got here. But now he's just aggravating and I think it's because I'm too uptight."

"Maybe it's just the way he is. Maybe you guys just don't connect as well as you do with other people. We're all different, so it makes sense that one certain guy might not be right for one certain girl." I thought for a while after he said that. It sounded like he'd given it a lot of thought before.

"Is there such thing as a perfect couple, though?" I wondered aloud. "I always told myself there was, because that's how I wanted my life to be; with one person. But no one's ever let me believe that can actually happen. I mean, you can't say that there's only _one_ girl out thre for you, can you? How would you know? And then, if you told yourself you were sure of it, wouldn't you always question if there was someone better suited to you out there? There's nothing to just _tell you_." I looked back at him as I finished, and he gave me a long look. I could tell his jaw was clenched, and I wanted to press my fingers against it as gently as I could to try to relieve the tension. I wondered what the skin on his face felt like...

"I think there would be some circumstances where there would only be one."

I sighed and stood in my place on the swing. "Be careful," Seth said warily as he stood beside me. "Anyway, maybe Owen's just one of the guys that's not right for you. You've said a bunch of times you only went out with him because so many people were insisting on it and he helped you out so much when you got here. He's the reason you know so many people who went to Forks High with him, isn't he? So they would have been all the people you'd know if you'd gone to school. But the two of you are really different. I mean, from what I've seen of Owen, anyway."

"I suppose," I sighed again and slowed the swing down. The sky was all grey now and looked angrier than it had the last few days. I hoped the rain would pour, because I enjoyed being outside and watching it. "I think, in the back of my mind, I just always thought I wouldn't find anyone I wanted because my standards are too high. Like, I've always had a strict image in my head."

"What image is that?" He asked from behind me.

Ahh...what to say. I couldn't keep the smirk off my face, because I wanted to tell the truth, and I knew it was probably a bad idea given my circumstances. I bit down on my bottom lip, trying to hide my smile. "He has to be tall, because I like feeling really tiny. And for some reason I get jealous of girls with blonde hair and blue eyes, but I don't find guys with them attractive at all. Never have. Maybe my eleven-year-long crush on Aladdin has made me go for the tan and black hair." I bit my lip again, harder, and decided to swerve away from the physical aspects while Seth was around. "He's got to laugh a lot, because it makes me feel silly when I laugh and no one else does. And I like being around happy people. And he has to like hugs! And he can't be one of those people where you always wonder if he's just around to get some, you know? It drives me crazy wondering if people are around me just for that. I wouldn't go out when we were in Australia, unless Josh was with me, because he used to tell all the guys he was my boyfriend so they'd leave me alone.

"And he can't yell at me for talking too much, like right now. He can't be afraid to sing with me." I laughed and lowered myself back onto the seat. "Just for fun, I don't care if he can't actually sing...I don't know, Seth. I always wanted to be a princess, but I think it's just because I wanted the Prince Charming that came along with it. That's silly, isn't it?"

"I don't think so," his voice was right above me and I gasped and looked up. He smirked down at me and his hands wrapped around the swing and pushed me gently, but firmy so I rose higher than I would have been able to manage by myself.

I got so high so soon that I knew I should have been frightened; the swing was attatched to a very tall branch, and at that moment I was swinging above the branch itself. But I wasn't frightened, because I felt I could trust Seth with my life.

* * *

**Seth's POV**

I woke up through the night and rolled over to face my window, my eyes half-closed. I blinked a couple of times, wondering if they were clear enough to really be seeing what was outside, then sat up straight in bed, checking the time quickly. Too quickly. My neck kinked painfully as I turned toward the clock on my desk and I groaned. Half-past four in the morning. I hoped Aubrey wouldn't mind if I woke her up just after dawn. But she woke me up that early a couple of times a week, so I could just tell her it was pay-back. And she wouldn't be angry once she saw the reason I woke her up.

I showered as quickly as I could and was ready and driving to her house quicker than I thought I could manage. I made it to her house at ten-past five and waited until it was light enough to reach for my phone.

**Wake up. Don't look out the window.**

I heard her phone, somewhere in the house in front of me, alert her to a message and leaned against my car as I waited.

**What is it?**

**Go out the front. Don't look outside until you're there.**

**In a minute. I have to rug up. It's cold!**

I chuckled and quickly made my way up to the porch to wait for her so I could greet her as soon as possible. After just over a minute, the front door opened and my imprint stepped out, wrapped in a jacket and coat with her pajama pants sticking out of the bottom and falling over a pair of extremely thick bedsocks.

She caught my eye, her expression still serene from sleep, then looked behind me. Her eyes widened more than I was used to and she gasped. "Snow!"

"I remembered you'd never seen it before. It started early this morning." I told her as she took a couple of steps toward it.

"Oh, I can't walk out there in these...I'll go get my gum boots. Stay here." She wrenched the door open and ran in quickly. I waited for another minute, and then she was back with her pants tucked into some long rain boots.

"What does it feel like?" She asked in a whisper as I took her hand to save her slipping on the ice on her steps. Her little hand was so cold, I noticed through the electrical feeling initiated from her skin on mine. I held it tighter, my hand swallowing it up completely to keep it warm. "Is it fluffy?"

"What do you think?" I asked as I bent down and picked up a handful with my other hand still holding her by the arm in case she fell. I didn't want her to get too cold and become sick. I put it into her perfect right hand and she watched it closely.

"It's hard!" She cried. "And cold." She laughed and swapped hands, wiping off the moisture on her pajama pants. She pressed her open palm to mine and I almost flinched from how cold hers was.

"I wish I was as warm as you...hey, pick up a handful and we'll see which melts the quickest."

I did as she instructed and the two of us held out our hands and watched the slow process of the snow melting. I'd collected a small puddle of water in the bottom of my hands after about ten seconds, but I didn't tell her.

I watched with a small smile. She looked like she was concentrating so hard, and I could tell her jaw was clenched. She eventually threw her hands toward the ground and the snow slopped away from her immediately. "Ah! It's too cold." She giggled before bringing her hands to her mouth and breathing on them. I let my snow go, too and she pressed both of her hands to mine. I felt the frozen skin of her palms warm up after a few seconds and she grinned and turned her head to look around us. "Everything looks prettier in the snow."

Her eyes were now focused on the leafless tree in the centre of her yard, and I silently agreed with her. Her skin looked paler than usual from cold, her cheeks flushed with a light rose color, and I realised it was the first time I'd ever seen her face uncovered by makeup. Her eyelashes looked more like feathers than they usually did, and I couldn't help but notice the bottom row was just a bit too long to fit correctly with the top, creating a nest around her eyes when I viewed her profile. She looked gorgeous.

She finally gave up the battle I knew she was holding in and let her teeth start chattering as she viewed the dark sky. "The sun's nearly all the way up...and I'm cold. Did you want some tea?"

I'd been chewing on my lip as I watched her, but then my teeth forgot how to work for a little while and I was left to watch as she waited for my answer with a small smile, then stretched out her hand.

"Okay," I agreed, taking it and getting a nervous twist in my stomach. Then she slipped on the first step on her way back inside and the whole of my stomach dropped as I caught her immediately between my arms, her eyes widening and her heart rate increasing.

"Thank you," she gasped, keeping a tight hold on my arm as I helped her up the rest of the steps.

She opened the door and tugged me inside gently, letting me see the interior of her home for the first time.

The house wasn't very big, but it was larger than my own. It was really comfortable with light-yellow colored walls and off-white features. I noticed lace hung at all the windows and pictures of Aubrey and another young girl hung on most walls. There was a hallway right in front of us which met the door and I counted two doors on the left and right hand sides and one opposite the front door which was open to show a bathroom. The only other open door was the one closest the bathroom on the right-hand side and I knew it was where Aubrey had come from to meet me.

She kicked off her boots and moved quickly to the left through a large archway which met the living room, then further into the kitchen and dining room. She motioned for me to sit at a wooden chair around the table.

"Will it last for long? Nena's been getting frustrated because the Nutella's setting in the jar all the time. Would you like sugar? I have three spoonfuls, but don't tell my mum." She set two mugs up and flicked on the kettle before crossing to the fridge and I watched, feeling completely content. I could sit here forever. There was something about hanging out at Emily's that made me feel at home with all of my brothers as she smiled and chatted and moved around the kitchen, and I wondered if how I felt now was how Sam had felt that whole time.

"Once my sister kept a carton of milk hidden at the back of the fridge, just because its use-by date was her birthday." She snorted.

"How long was it there for?"

"Dad found it in November. Her birthday's at the beginning of August." She said vacantly. The kettle stopped boiling and I stood to pour the water incase she burned herself. Once everything was finished I carried both mugs to the table and she put the milk back in the fridge.

"It's weids seeing the snow outside and feeling this cold while I know my friends back in Australia will be sweating their arses off." - I smiled at her pronounciation of asses - "I would most definitely rather be here," she tugged her sleeves down over her hands further. "I've said before I hate hot weather, haven't I? I can't wait to see what summer's like here."

"It doesn't snow." I chuckled and she rolled her eyes. I wanted her to keep talking, because her voice was seriously the most amazing sound in the world, and I didn't have to wait long.

"What are your plans for the day?"

"Didn't have any,"

"Stay here and wear socks with me, because it's cold. Or because I'm cold, seeing as you always seem to be channeling an oven. You can meet my family! Oh, but keep an eye out for Nena because she has an obsession with my friends. Especially my guy friends. She definitely likes Owen more than I do, but I think that might just be because they have the same ridiculously low level of maturity."

I laughed with her, feeling on top of the world from her remark.

I can't remember what I'd said, but I had Aubrey laughing so hard she was gasping for with her head on the table for a long twenty seconds when the girl from the pictures around her house joined out party, rubbing her tired blue eyes as she watched her sister a little resentfully. She had an extreme amount of wavy hair on her head, dyed a dark red and showing a sand-blonde in random sections which reminded me of my own fur and her skin was a little lighter than Aubrey's. Even her features were different - her lips were thinner, her nose smaller without the turned-up end Aubrey had inherited, and her eyes were relaxed; not almond-shaped and constantly looking surprised like my imprint's were. She was tall, and now that I'd seen her completely I was surprised at how old she looked. I knew she was only fourteen from Aubrey talking about her, but they could have passed saying they were the same age. In all honesty, they didn't look anything alike, and I wondered if they were actually sisters.

"Morning Nena," Aubrey managed to giggle when she's gained control over herself again. She reached for her mug and ignored the filthy stare her sister was still throwing her. "Did you look outside?"

Nena's deep blue eyes turned up toward the window and widened so they were almost the size Aubrey's were usually. "Is that..._snow?"_

"Uh-huh," Aubrey laughed as Nena jumped to the window. She turned to me. "Oh, this is Seth. Seth, this is my sister, Nena."

"Hi, Seth." She crossed from the window and stood in front of me. "It's nice to meet you. _Finally,"_

"You, too."

"Grace talks about you heaps," she said, giving her sister a quick glance. Her lips pulled up into a smirk. "She says you have nice abs."

Aubrey let out a loud, quick breath and put her head in her hands. "I didn't say _that_,"

I grinned. "Of course she didn't."

My imprint shook her head at the table as Nena laughed quietly and grabbed a green apple out of a large bowl on the bench. "Why're you two up this early? I wanted to sleep in, but you're so bloody loud."

"You sleep until eleven every day you don't have school." Aubrey murmured. "So go back to bed."

"Can't. Your voice pierces through my head and keeps waking me up." She sat at the table opposite her sister and stared at her for a few minutes while she slowly crunched away at her apple. "At least it's not opera this morning. I don't see what the big deal is about your voice; all it does is cause headaches."

"Opera is _supposed _to be piercing. When it was first -"

"I'm not listening to the history of shit again," Nena said loudly. She reached across the table and took a quick sip of her sister's tea. "I'm going to play in the snow!"

"Have fun. Don't catch pneumonia." Aubrey muttered as Nena threw her a sarcastic smile and marched away from us.

Aubrey looked at the table rather than at me when we were alone. "I really didn't say that," she murmured.

I smirked. "I believe you." Yes, I lied to my imprint.

"I suppose we'd better move farther away from my parent's room if we're being so loud." she stood and took my coffee mug to the sink with her. "C'mon,"

The snow started falling again after a couple of hours. Nena had gone back inside after five minutes, but Aubrey was determined to make the most of it and dragged a huge comforter outside, into the back yard. We sat under the protection of the porch roof and let our boots rest in the snow in front of us.

She was still shivering, despite being rugged up in clothes, and on top of that, resembling a marshmallow with her blanket swallowing her up. She kept shifting over slightly until her side was pressed against mine, and then when what wasn't enough, put her hands up the sleeves of my shirt and rested her frozen skin on my own. The first bit of contact stung because our temperatures were so different, but there was no way I was complaining at having her so close.

"So you have to teach me how to build a snowman. And by teach, I mean I'll supervise, because you seem to be the only person who has no problem touching the snow."

I chuckled. "You'll get used to it. You just need some good gloves...are you warming up yet?"

"My knees feel like they're covered in needles, did you want to breathe on them for me?"

"Maybe you should learn how to build an igloo instead. Apparently they're really good at trapping in heat."

"No, I'll freeze my bum off while I'm out here and then go and have a bubblebath."

"Yeah, that's less work."

"Also, I think if Nena comes back outside, we should ambush her with snowballs. You can throw really hard, can't you? I want to give her a big bruise, right here." She motioned to the entire left side of her face and I laughed again. The relationship she had with her sister reminded me of the way Leah and I used to get along before any of the supernatural stuff got thrown into our lives.

I didn't tell her how small the chances of Nena joining us were - I could hear her muttering about not being able to feel her feet from her place inside.

I watched as my imprint lowered her face to the floor boards of the porch. I couldn't tell what was going through her mind, but she looked a little sad. I didn't want to say anything, in case it wasn't any of my business, but I saw the perfect thing to distract her and make her happy again.

"Look," she perked up at the sound of my voice and I nodded my head in the direction of her yard. "It's snowing."

The small flakes were falling gracefully to the ground around us and her eyes took them in with wonder. I felt a loss as her hands slipped out of my sleeves and one reached out, into the way of a couple of flakes which stirred with the motion of her arm.

It took only seconds for her to shed her blanket and walk - very carefully - into the centre of the yard. The snow under her feet was thin, but undisturbed, and it sprayed up lightly with every step she took like frozen powder. I was hypnotized as she lifted her face to the sky, her eyes squinted against the light of the gray clouds above us, and watched the snow fall around her.

"Seth, come and stand with me." Her voice was quiet and she waved her arms to bring me closer. I acted immediately and found myself loyally by her side as soon as was humanly acceptable.

She tried to catch flakes on her tongue for a good five minutes, and I let her know when she was successful. The snow gathered on the top of her head and I dusted it off before it could melt and cause a cold.

Her eyes were alight and wide the entire time, and it was so refreshing to see her take such pleasure in the weather. She was just too beautiful. I couldn't help but want to live in her world forever - see things through her eyes, and understand how she could take so many things so gently. She radiated pure innocence; something I had not seen in anyone close to our age before. Even her sister seemed to be on a completely different wavelength than she was. I thought about the older members of the pack constantly treating me like the young, innocent one. I knew it was just a habit in good fun which had stuck over the years, but if they still really did think of me that way, I couldn't wait until they met my imprint.

"You need to go and get a warmer coat." I told her when she hunched over and tried to control her teeth.

"I don't have anything warmer than this. I'm wearing three layers of long sleeves, but the air still feels like it's right on my skin!" She frowned adorably and looked me up and down. "And don't tell me to go and get a warmer jacket when you're standing in front of me with the sleeves of your only shirt rolled up. Ridiculous."

The sound of the back door opening had us both turning our heads, and a woman with dead straight, dark hair leaned out of it, her face half-buried in the thick scarf around her neck.

"Who's this?"

"This is Seth." Aubrey said happily as she scooped up a handful of snow and pushed it onto the bare skin of my arms. It melted instantly and the water rolled down my arms and dripped off my curled fingers. "He came over early to show me the snow."

"Oh, that was lovely of you, Seth," the woman said as she opened the door a little wider. "I'm Lorraine. And I'm about to start cooking breakfast, if you two would like to come and join us. The heater's on. I think your sister has frostbite."


	8. Near to You

_Thank yous to Shouldna, Pinkkitten1, kopycat101, yasybelle, rowandasky and guest reviewers for their lovely words!_

_Look how quick my updates are lately! :) Yay!_

**I only know that I am  
Better where you are  
I only know that I belong  
Where you are**

_-Near to You, _A Fine Frenzy

* * *

**Chapter Seven - I'm Better Near to You**

I spent more time at Aubrey's house after I'd shown her the snow. She still showed up at my house a couple of times a week before anyone else had woken up, but we had what she called 'Tea Day', where I would pick her up while it was still dark and take her somewhere to watch the sunrise. Then we would go back to her house for tea before the rest of her family woke up and watch really bad reality TV shows. Usually this happened every Wednesday, and I was very clear with Jake not to put me on patrol late Tuesday night or Wednesday morning, because Aubrey got a little too excited.

I liked her parents, but I kind of got the feeling I was being stared down by her father a lot of the time. He was different to what I'd been expecting. I was thinking of him to be a lot like his daughter - well-groomed with an easy accent. He was, of course, the complete opposite of what my thoughts had made him out to be.

His accent was pretty close to the way Australians were portrayed on television, and he always wore sweat pants tucked into thick socks. He handled the cold the worst out of his family, and they all laughed at him for complaining a lot of the time. His skin was harshly tanned to a point where it was even darker than my own, and rough like his voice. He was extremely protective over Aubrey, and originally I thought he would have been the same with Nena, but I quickly came to see otherwise. Aubrey once said that her parents had given up when Nena started showing she was going to be a lost cause last year when she started her teenage years.

Today was Tea Day. We were sitting in my car with a CD playing gently in the background as we laughed over one of those things that came up in our own little world. Aubrey was curled up under an old orange blanket I'd had lying on the back of the seat with her arms wrapped around her legs. Her teeth began chattering when our silence lasted long enough, and I immediately slipped off my jacket and handed it to her. I'd only been wearing it to save from any questions I would be asked by her family, anyway.

"I'm not taking your only jacket! You'll _freeze _with just a t-shirt on!"

"It's fine, Aubrey," I said, wrapping it around her shoulders before she could say anything else. She gave me a long look before she slipped her arms through the sleeves, her hands lost in the process. "Sorry the heating in my car's crappy."

"Thank you, Seth."

We were silent as the sun began rising in front of us, and I glanced at her from my peripheral vision as her hair turned golden and her eyes yellow in the magic light of the morning. There were fewer clouds today than usual, so we could see the sun clearly for the first time of our tea days.

Neither of us spoke again until twenty minutes or so after the sun had made an appearance.

"It's Christmas in five days," Aubrey murmured quietly.

"Does that mean your mother will slow down soon?" I chuckled. Lorraine had decorated just about every inch of their house in tinsel and various Christmas decorations. I think she was having a competition with Stacey, because Aubrey and I had wandered between houses a couple of times just days ago and they'd questioned what each house had looked like. Aubrey gave them both the same answer - "It looks like Santa vomited in every room,"

"We're going home for New Year's." She continued after a little while, and I felt my chest tighten.

"To Australia?"

"Mm-hm,"

I swallowed and tried not to look at her. It would be ridiculous to act upset over this. We were best friends - I wasn't about to try to make her stay in America when her family obviously had this planned...I might scare her off.

"How long will you be staying for?"

"Just a week. We're leaving on the twenty-ninth and getting back the fifth." Her wide eyes turned to me, and though I didn't look at her, I could tell she was watching me curiously. I wondered what was on her mind.

"Bring me back something." I forced myself to say as I started making the way back to her house.

}~*~{

I spent Christmas morning with my family, just to give Aubrey time with hers. We met at Emily's at nine, earlier than most of my brothers were happy to agree to, but the time was soon forgotten when my favorite cousin set the table. She grinned at the compliments that flew from our mouths as soon as we dug in.

Only a few of the pack members weren't present around the table, and were instead spending their Christmas breakfast with the closest members of their family. We'd all fallen into a routine over the years, and breakfast was always an occasion at Sam and Emily's small house. After breakfast, I would spend a smaller lunch with Mom and Leah, and then I would go with Jake to the Cullen's house for dinner. Esme couldn't taste human food like we could, but she was amazing at cooking nonetheless. Nessie had cooked last year as well, and there wasn't anything I could complain about when it came to her dishes, either.

This year wasn't going to go as my last few had, though.

Aubrey was expecting me sometime around lunch. She'd told me she had to see me today, because she had the 'best gift ever' for me. I'd insisted I didn't want anything from her, but she'd told me to be quiet. I felt terrible - I didn't have any money at all lately, and I'd been applying for jobs like crazy. I had the best thing I could manage for her, though, and while I knew she would appreciate it (because Aubrey appreciated just about anything), I still felt shitty for not buying her something really special.

Then again, it was better than a twig covered in orange-colored leaves, and she'd been ecstatic when I handed that to her a couple of weeks ago...

"Where's your Aubrey, Seth?" Kim asked during the meal. A few people looked toward me, curious. Though not many people had met her yet, and the ones who had only in passing, everyone knew about her. I tried not to talk about her too much, because I knew how annoying it was hearing about the guy's imprints non-stop, but it was hard to keep my thoughts from straying during patrol, and the other imprints were seriously interested. They kept trying to convince me to bring her around to meet everyone, but I knew if she'd come to something like breakfast they wouldn't have let up questioning her, and seeing as we were only friends, things could have ended badly.

I chewed around my mouthful of food before I could answer.

"I thought she might start asking more questions than usual if I brought her to a house full of giants who never stop eating." I said as I stabbed more food with my fork, and then answered seriously. "She's having breakfast with her family. I'm going over there for lunch."

"He's leaving us for this girl." Mom piped up from another table which had been brought in to seat everyone. "I can't blame him though; she's special."

"Yeah, even Leah's been getting along with her," Jared joked, then winced as Sam kicked his shin under the table.

"She'd better be special, if he's leaving early." Emily winked.

Embry leaned forward. "Trust me; if her personality's as good as her looks, Seth's accomplished something."

I threw a piece of potato at him, and he caught it in his mouth easily. "It was a compliment, Seth," he said once he'd swallowed it.

"You'll have to bring her to meet us soon." Rachel insisted. "Nessie and I are questioning Jacob about someone he's never even met."

"Are you going to tell her about the whole deal?" Embry asked.

'The whole deal' being the fact that I turned into a giant wolf and our souls had connected the first time I laid eyes on her. "Nah, I think I'll wait to see if anything actually happens between us first. I don't want to go into the whole soul mate thing if she just wants to be friends with me."

Leah snorted. "Please," everyone turned to her to hear her opinion. "She's clearly in love with you; she goes insane whenever you hold her hand."

"She's not in love with me -"

"I think Leah's right, Seth." Paul interrupted seriously. "Anyone else would have been sick of you by now."

They dropped the subject not long after and I stopped listening to what they were saying and instead took up staring at the clock.

I sat around the table more quietly than I usually would have once the food had been cleared away, and then was in my car as soon as the clock read quarter-to-twelve.

She and Nena were still in their pajamas when I arrived at their house. She was sitting in a pile of Christmas paper wrappings, a stuffed owl in her lap and a big gold ribbon tied messily around her head. She had a box in her hands and was studying the back of it with a crease between her eyebrows.

"Merry Christmas, Seth!" Nena shouted, being the first person to see me and throwing a bright orange ball at me from the kitchen. I caught it with my left hand and dropped it to the floor as Lorraine scolded her youngest daughter for throwing things indoors.

"Happy Christmas," Aubrey said with an excited smile as I sat next to her, hardly looking up from her box. "Did you have a good morning?"

"Yeah," I ran my fingers along the edge of the brown paper in my arms as I answered her. "Got harassed by the extended family over breakfast...here,"

"Oh, you didn't have to get me anything, Seth, I told you!" She said as I handed her the paper covering her gift. She opened it gently and picked up the heavy material, her fingers tight against the weight. "Oh, that's perfect," she said in a voice which sounded too overjoyed by the old jacket. "You remembered I didn't have a big coat for comfy days!"

"It was my favorite coat, but I haven't worn it for a few years. It was always too big for me. I mean, it wouldn't be now, but it'll swim on you."

She wrapped it around her shoulders and put her arms through the sleeves. "Thank you, Seth! I love it. I'm going to wear it every day."

"Sorry it's not in the best condition."

"Hey! It has character. I seriously love it. That was really thoughtful."

I decided to let it go and buy her something fantastic when I could afford it, and she wasted no time in moving onto the next subject.

"And now my present to you!" She sang happily. She calmed down after a few seconds and turned so she was sitting cross-legged in front of me, watching me seriously. "Now, I know you're going to keep insisting against it and everything, so I'm going to tell you right now not to. But you should know no money was spent on this, and I really want you to accept."

"Okay," I smiled with her, unable to help it was I watched her grinning up at me.

"Well, seeing as Nena got to take a friend on a week-long camping trip last year, Mum and Dad agreed that it was my turn to take a friend on a holiday. And Dad and my Aunty have all these free plane tickets that are about to expire, and rather than let them go to waste, I want you to take one and come to Australia with us for New Year's!"

"No," I said at once, leaning away from her. I couldn't intrude on her family holiday. And her family couldn't have had _that_ many free tickets.

"Please, Seth?" Her voice rose as she reached for my hands. "You're my best friend in America, and I don't want to take anyone else with us. If you don't come, Nena's going to take the ticket and bring one of her friends and I don't think I would be able to handle twenty hours on a plane with that." She groaned and put her face in her hands. "I mean, if you _want_ to."

"I would really, really enjoy that, Aubrey, but are you sure your parents are okay with that? That's a huge Christmas present to be giving to someone."

"Are you staying for lunch Seth?" Lorraine's voice shouted from the kitchen.

"Yes, he is!" Aubrey shouted back. "I told you it didn't cost anything." She said quickly as she turned back to me. "You'd be helping us out by taking it - it's better than just letting it go to waste, isn't it? Did you already have plans?"

There was always a bonfire on First Beach to bring in the New Year, but I could miss that no problem. "No, I didn't -"

"Wonderful! You're coming to Australia!" She said with a wide smile, then it faded. "Seth, just let me know if I'm peer pressuring you or something. If you don't want to come to a country where you can't escape from me, just say so."

I laughed at the ridiculousness of me wanting to be away from her and she climbed to her feet to announce I would be joining their family for their holiday. I was sure to speak to Lorraine about it as soon as I'd joined her to wish her a merry Christmas, and she assured me more than once I was perfectly welcome. Apparently David flew a lot for his job so he had a bunch of points or something, and his sister was a flight attendant so she got even more from that and she gave them to them.

"We're having a barbecue lunch," Nena told me as she sat beside me on the couch, her eyes on the television. Aubrey didn't look up from her spot on my opposite side, where she was tearing a piece of wrapping paper into tiny shreds. Nena continued talking. "Dad likes to pretend we're still in Australia, so he's gone out the back to cook it all. He'll be back in before it's finished, because he can't handle the cold very well."

He did make an appearance after a little while, and I smirked at Aubrey's wide-eyed reaction to his outfit. "Dad, thongs and socks do not work! Didn't Aunty Nicole scold you for that every winter back at home?"

He was wearing his usual outfit of sweatpants and multiple shirts, tucked in. His pants were tucked into the thick socks on his feet, and he had flip-flops on, looking extremely uncomfortable.

"Seth,"

"David," I nodded, unable to keep from smirking. He didn't stare at me as much as he had the first time I'd been there, and he spoke directly to me for a while, so I was starting to feel a little more comfortable and accepted around him.

Lunch was finished quickly, and Aubrey told me that was just because he'd turned the heat up so much to keep from being out in the cold for so long. We all sat around the table in the dining room and David set about six different meats in the center while Lorraine placed a few different salads. I think Aubrey took about half of the Greek salad from its huge bowl and put her head down so no one would say anything.

"How old are you, Seth?" Lorraine asked as she dished her plate.

"Twenty-one,"

"Oh, really?" She was clearly surprised. "I would have thought you were older than that."

"I've heard that before," I chuckled quietly.

"And you've lived here all your life?" David asked.

"Yeah, LaPush,"

"I guess that means you're used to this stupid weather. I don't know how you can walk around without a hundred bloody layers on."

"You do get used to it," I said, half-lying as I wished I'd worn more than just a long-sleeved shirt around. The sleeves were pretty much useless. I'd rolled them up as soon as I'd walked through the door. I pulled them down now, and hoped no one noticed.

Leah and Mom were surprised when I got home and told them about my trip. None of us had ever been out of the country before, and I hadn't ever gone too far from Seattle (as a human, anyway), so I was thinking we didn't really know how to react. Each of the guys responded with more enthusiasm than both Mom and Leah put together.

_No way!_

_Aw, our little Sethy..._

_What're you going to do to her while you're away?_

I rolled my eyes, directing the gesture to Brady, and answered with the same comment I'd given them time and time again. _She's got a boyfriend!_

_Doesn't mean you can't make your move..._

I was freaking out a little bit about the trip. I honestly had no idea what to expect - either from the ride over their or from Australia itself. No one I knew had been there before, either, and I didn't want to ask Aubrey too many questions in case I sounded like an idiot.

When I got back from patrol on Monday I was surprised to see Mom and Leah dressed up more than they normally would be.

"Charlie taking you on a date?" I asked hopefully, my eyes slipping to Leah and telling me I was wrong.

"No, actually. I called Aubrey's mother to tell her thank you for your holiday and she invited us to dinner. Just to get to know each other. It would be strange letting my son go overseas with a family I know nothing about." She grinned excitedly and I chewed on my bottom lip. I didn't like this.

"And Leah's going, too?"

"Oh, Seth," Leah scoffed and rolled her eyes. "Aubrey loves me. It would be weird if only the two of you went, I told Mom so. Our whole families are meeting up. They'll be our family soon enough, anyway." She raised her eyebrows suggestively and I sighed.

"Aubrey and I are just friends. And you're going to go over there and be really obvious about everything when there's absolutely nothing going on between us and her parents aren't going to want to take me anymore. Please just don't."

"Stop being a mopey bitch and get dressed. Aubrey's excited." Leah snapped. I threw her one more look and moved to my room to change into something more presentable. I was immediately so excited to see Aubrey again, but I didn't want Mom or Leah to do anything that would have me avoiding her family.

I almost turned the car around three times on the way to Forks. I knew it was probably best that Mom met Lorraine before I went around the world with them, but I just couldn't help thinking about situations that could end in disaster with us all sitting around the table together. I didn't even know if David liked me or not, so if Leah made any jokes about mine and Aubrey's relationship he'd probably never welcome me again. Not that he did now.

My imprint was waiting outside for us to arrive, and I immediately felt more at ease when I saw her. I hadn't seen her since noon the day before, and I hadn't even realized how anxious it had made me. She'd left my house before we could have lunch and said she needed to visit Owen before we left for Australia. It had made me sick to think of what could be happening while I sat at home and craved her presence. She hadn't mentioned him for a little while, and I wondered if she was starting to return the idiot's actions. She'd been a little worked up over him kissing her weeks ago, but who knows what could have happened between now and then?

I could see the green in her eyes as they lit up and she knocked twice on her own front door before standing from the little chair beside it and waiting at the top step.

She was wearing my old coat, I noticed after a longer time than I should have.

"Isn't she beautiful?" My mom whispered with a charmed smile. I smiled, but didn't say anything as I silently agreed with her. My family and Aubrey were extremely close, and she looked just as happy to see them as they did her.

"Hi, Sue!" She called happily as Mom climbed out of the passenger's seat, closely followed by Leah in the back. They brought flowers for Lorraine in purple, because Leah had remembered Aubrey complaining about her mother decorating the house entirely in the color once. I took a couple of seconds to make a move, and watched Lorraine leave the house just as they were walking up to it. Here we go.

"Mum, this is Sue and Seth's sister, Leah. Sue and Leah, this is my mum Lorraine."

"It's lovely to meet you," Lorraine said happily, opening her arms as they reached the house and taking them both in embraces. I trudged up behind them a bit more slowly, glancing at Aubrey who had been watching me the entire time. She gave me a wide smile, excited, and I twisted my lips back at her.

"Thanks for organizing all of this behind my back. I got home from work and found them ready to go."

"Think of all the fun we're going to have." Lorraine told me as she wrapped her arms around me and kissed my cheek. "Aubrey's told me a thousand times how good a cook you are. You're going to have to help me tonight, because my skills are nothing special."

"Don't lie. I love eating here." I chuckled. I felt Aubrey's hands on my back, pushing me toward the door and I moved loyally.

"It's good to see a local who's sane." Lorraine laughed as my mother took off her coat with Aubrey and left them by the door. "I don't know how Seth walks around without ten layers on."

"Leah's the same," Mom laughed with her. "They're insane."

Aubrey was wearing a white lace dress with light blue tights under her coat. She smiled when she saw me admiring it and spun around so her skirt lifted into a hoop around her. "Are you going to let me help cook today?"

"No chance," I said as her mother denied her as well. Her lips pouted and she didn't say anything else as she looped her arm through Leah's, standing on her toes to reach better, and walked her to the living room.

"David, this is Sue and Leah." Lorraine announced. David was sitting on the couch with Nena, watching what looked like a documentary on penguins.

He stood and shook both of their hands, and then mine as well, giving me a hit on the shoulder. I think mine would have hurt, had I been human.


	9. Warm Whispers

_Thank you, thank you, thank you to Pinkkitten1, phoenica, dawnmac, rowandasky, Shouldna, kopycat101, Deadtom77 and DLR25 for their reviews!_

_Guys! I am so, so sorry that it's taken me such a long time to post a new chapter! Every time I sat down to get it done something would come up and I'm stressed and going mad because of everything that's going on! Phantom rehearsals seem to just go and go and go and I never get a break, but it's worth it. And you get a super long chapter this time, so yay!_

_I promise I will never take that long to post a chapter again, unless my laptop blows up or something!_

**Your warm whispers,  
Our of the dark they carry my heart,  
Your warm whispers,  
Into the dawn they carry me through**

_-Warm Whispers, _Missy Higgins

* * *

**Chapter Eight - Your Warm Whispers**

**Aubrey's POV**

Seth and I went to my room for a little while, just while our parents were getting to know each other. I took my coat and opened the wide window beside my bed so I could wear it. Seth kept insisting that I didn't have to wear it, but it was my favourite item of clothing at the moment. It was so thick and cozy - it kind of looked like two jackets sewn into one. The lining was red and the outside was green, red, purple and black plaid. I think there were about twenty pockets through it, and it covered my hands when I didn't have it pushed up my arms. Basically, it felt like I was being hugged while I walked around.

And it had lived in Seth's room for I don't know how long, so it smelled delicious like him.

I leaned back against my headboard, my pillows behind me so I was comfy and pushed my feet into Seth's knee, where he was sitting cross-legged at the foot of my bed. I studied my blue stockings as both of us sat in silence and tapped my toes lightly on his leg to a song that was stuck in my head.

"We have a big day tomorrow," I finally said.

His long fingers traced the tops of my toes and we both watched the movement closely before he answered me. I didn't know why I let him do that, because I was usually terribly self-conscious about my feet. They were all twisted and horrible looking from ballet and just bad genetics. Basically they were triangle-shaped at the point and covered in calluses. And they hurt if I wore shoes for too long. I hated them.

"I have no idea about catching airplanes, so don't leave me behind if I do something wrong, okay?"

"Just don't try to smuggle in knives and drugs, and we should be fine."

He groaned. "Now I have to repack! I was going to make millions when I got over there."

I giggled and leaned my head back on the pillows. "I find it easy enough to make money from standing on street corners and attracting strange men."

He watched me for a little while with a small frown and I bit my lip to refrain from laughing.

"Busking, Seth!"

I rolled over so my back was against the wall. Most of the bed was in front of me now, and I wrapped my arms around the pillow above my head, sighing. I wouldn't ever let anyone know what I was thinking, but I wished Seth would lie beside me. Sometimes when it was really cold at night time I would tuck myself up in a cocoon made out of my blankets and wonder what it would be like to have him with me. It was nice sitting beside him on cold days, but how nice would it be having him cuddle me while I went to sleep?

I suddenly snapped out of that, in case he could read my mind, and I heard Mum's voice call us both out to the kitchen.

Apparently she, Sue and Leah were getting on just as well as I knew they would. I grinned and wandered out beside Seth, who was being more quiet than usual, and stood in between him and his sister at the counter. The three of them had glasses of wine in their hands, and it amused me that Mum had gone to so much trouble to impress them. She didn't really have any friends in America, so I was happy she was finally meeting someone.

It looked like Leah was getting along well with everyone, as well, because she had a grin as wide as everyone else. I didn't see where all the talk about Leah came from, because she'd always been really nice when I was around. Seth said a lot of their friends were sick of her because she'd been an attention seeker and brought everyone down a lot when her boyfriend had left her. I'd told him that was hardly reason enough for them all to ignore her now, but he'd insisted it was a long story and he'd explain more another time.

I stayed in the kitchen when they started cooking. Just because I was hopeless at it myself didn't mean I didn't like watching it. Some of my favourite shows in Australia had been cooking shows. I liked the sense of humour the chefs had.

Mum handed Seth a knife and a bunch of vegetables and he began chopping while she got everything ready to make the pasta. I'd tried making pasta once...it had ended up too soft and the texture made Nena vomit. That was after the saucepan had boiled over and burned Dad's foot. It was a bad night for everyone.

I ended up sitting on a part of the bench they weren't using with the recipe book in my lap, reading stages out to them then they asked. They had to ask me twice a couple of times because I kept getting carried away with my thoughts, but I eventually stopped and took up watching Seth chop things instead.

You know how you get hypnotised watching chefs on television cut up vegetables because the knife and their hands are move too quickly for you to really be able to make sense of what's happening? That's what it was like with Seth. My eyes were wide as I leaned forward and watched him chop up an entire cucumber, the pieces exactly the same width and looking absolutely perfect. He smirked when he looked up and caught me watching, and then he started moving even faster, and I swear the knife blurred. No one else was watching, so I couldn't be sure. It reminded me of the time I had a cold a few years earlier and I'd taken my medicine before lying down and watching _Friends_. The starting scene where they're all dancing around the fountain had seemed like it was in fast motion and no one had believed me. I wondered if I was just hallucinating this time without being under the influence of medication, or if Seth was just really good at cutting vegetables.

Forty minutes later we were found sitting around our dining room table, which had been covered in pasta, breads and salads. Mum knew Seth was a big eater, so she must have thought it ran in his family because there was much too much food for a regular party of seven people. Apparently it did run in the family, though, because Leah piled her plate high, too.

"Are you all packed for tomorrow, Seth?" Mum asked, picking the perfect time to ask as Seth stuffed his mouth full of salad.

I watched, grinning, as he chewed as quickly as he could and swallowed, the action looking somewhat painful.

"Almost. Mom's been on my case for days to make sure I don't forget something."

"You make sure you listen to her," I said as I winked at Sue at the other side of the table. "It's a long way back if you forget something important."

The night went by without any incident whatsoever. I didn't even embarrass myself, so I was particularly happy. It ended quickly, though, seeing as we had to be on our way in the early hours of the morning. We were boarding the aeroplane at nine-thirty, but the drive between our house and the airport took four hours or so.

I could tell my mother, Sue and Leah got on really well, so I was super happy.

"It was wonderful meeting you! Thank you so much for the flowers." Mum said as she gave them both tight hugs.

"Lovely meeting you, too," Sue replied warmly. "Thank you so much for taking Seth away from you - he's going to have the time of his life, I'm sure."

"It's always a pleasure having him here." Mum insisted as she let go of Leah. "We'll have to catch up when we're back in America."

"Definitely," Leah grinned widely and gave Nena a quick hug when my sister ran up and wrapped her arms around her waist. Leah had gotten an earful of how pretty her hair was tonight. Nena had scarily thick hair and had always wanted short hair, but we all knew she'd end up with an afro, so she was stuck with it being down to the center of her back.

"I'll drop Seth off in the morning so we can get the car back." Leah told us as they made their way to the door. Seth was behind me, hugging my mother as I followed his family outside to give them a proper goodbye. It was the polite thing to do, and my family wouldn't follow because it was too cold for them.

"Have fun down under, Aubrey," Leah said as I shivered in her warm arms. "Don't let Seth get lost in the outback or anything."

"I doubt we'll be going anywhere near the outback," I giggled in response before moving onto Sue. "But I'll make sure he doesn't get pecked to death by a kookaburra or something."

They said goodbye one more time and left the porch when the door opened behind me once again.

"See you in the morning." I smiled when he stopped in front of me and tugged my jacket more tightly around me, as if to stop my teeth chattering.

"Bright and early,"

"Not so bright." We laughed and then he closed the distance between us and wrapped his arms around my back. I pressed my cheek right into his shirt and hugged him back tightly, wishing he could just stay here and keep me warm forever. I always felt somewhat light headed when I was around Seth like this...like I could just start floating toward the clouds like a helium balloon and he'd have to hold me to keep me earthbound. It was a good thing he was so tall.

"Goodnight," he tapped me lightly on the nose once with the pad of his thumb before turning and joining his sister and mother in the car. He turned around once on his way to grin at me, and I watched until their car was out of sight.

}~*~{

**Seth's POV**

I could hardly sleep. It was usually hard for me to get sleep anyway, being away from her. Somewhere in the back of my mind, though I'd always envied them, I'd considered my imprinted brothers weak when they'd suffered from being away from their partner. Now I admired them for being able to do so as often as they did.

I couldn't be sure, but it seemed the more time I spent around Aubrey, the harder it was to be away from her. I thought it would make me less anxious if I saw her almost every day during the week - help me get through the hours when I wasn't near her - but leaving her was just becoming harder and harder a task. I knew I wouldn't be in a good state after this holiday. Spending an entire week right by her side was going to make it impossible to leave her in Forks while I came back to LaPush.

And this attitude was unhealthy, because I had no right to always be that close to her; she had a boyfriend.

A boyfriend whose murder I had been planning with help from a couple of my brothers. All in good fun, of course.

I don't know if I actually dozed off at all, but it got to be a couple of hours before the time I had to leave, so I decided to go keep whoever would be patrolling company. Seeing as there were so many of us now, Jake had someone constantly doing rounds. Usually at this time it was only one person, unless a vampire had been sighted in the area.

_Seth? _It was Embry who spoke.

_How's your night?_

_Boring. Does being here mean I can go to bed? _I felt him yawn.

_Nah, I have to be at Aubrey's in a couple of hours to leave for Australia._

_Oh, yeah, that's tomorrow...does she think it's weird that she asked you instead of her boyfriend?_

I cringed at the use of the word before I could answer. _I don't think so. She doesn't think like that. She just sees me as a friend. And I don't know if she'd be able to handle being around Owen for an entire week. _I chuckled.

_So...they really feel something on their side too, then? It's not just because someone's that willing to be in their life?_

_What do you mean?_

_Well, all the other imprints didn't really have anyone to depend on like that before they were imprinted on...Emily and Rachel were alone, Kim had drooled over Jared for years, Claire, Ness and Amelia were practically raised by their guys...but Aubrey has someone, doesn't she? And she still wants to be around you all the time. She must feel something out of the ordinary._

_I think she does,_ I mused, thoughtful now. Embry and I both thought over that for a little while in our heads, not exactly talking to each other. _She told me that the first time we met she went to coffee with me because she felt safer than she ever had before. That's obviously the imprint talking._

_Yeah..._

I almost laughed as I finally caught onto the track his mind was going down. _Embry, are you _jealous_?_

_No..._ His defenses went straight back up, and I laughed louder. Ahh, how I wished someone else was around to take witness to this._ I'm not jealous! You all know I love the single life..._

_Yeah, yeah,_

_I get more action every month than you've had in your entire life, Seth! And _you're _the one with the soul mate! Just remember that!_

I was still chuckling to myself as I ran, and Embry ended up just muttering curses directed at me until it was time for me to phase out. He wished me luck on my vacation and I told him I'd try my best to phase and get in contact sometime while I was over there.

Leah was sitting at the table in her pajamas with a cup of coffee in her hand when I got home.

"Where've you been?"

"I was out running patrol with Embry. Couldn't sleep."

"You realise I could just go back to bed if you weren't so selfish and would just run to Aubrey's house."

"Hey, you're always the one obsessed with keeping up human appearances, Leah," I reminded her as I made myself some toast. "What would David and Lorraine think if I showed up at their house before dawn on a jog?"

"They would think you exercise just enough for all that muscle." She yawned with a roll of her eyes. "Go get your bag. And Mom said you have to wake her to say goodbye before we go."

Half an hour later, we were pulling up in front of Aubrey's house. Lorraine was at the boot of the family car, wedging a large suitcase in amongst others. She waved with a wide smile when we pulled up and I climbed out of the car, shutting the door in Leah's face when she made a somewhat crude suggestion of how to spend my time in Australia with Aubrey.

"Morning, Seth! Did Leah want to come in for some tea?"

"No, that's alright, she's going back to bed. She said to say hello."

"We'll have to catch up with your family again once we're back from Australia. I had a lot of fun last night."

"We all did, too. Where's everyone else?"

"Dave's inside trying to get Nena to eat some breakfast, and Aubrey's still in bed."

I chuckled as Lorraine rolled her eyes. "Aubrey's not the first up for once?"

"I don't think she's actually had any sleep yet." She said with a small laugh. "You might as well go in and drag her out. It'll be a struggle for anyone else."

Her bedroom door was slightly opened, probably from where the last person had tried to wake her. I pushed it open gently, cringing when it squeaked, and slipped through the gap that was only just wide enough to fit me.

I was convinced I would be able to wake her, though I hated to do so, and join her family quickly, but all of my plans disappeared when I turned and set my eyes on her. I realized with a tug at my heart it was the first time I had ever seen her sleep.

She was pressed right against the wall, most of the bed still available beside her, the blankets cocooned around her tightly. Her hair spilled across the pillow in front of her face, and her fingers were curled just above the blanket, between her down-turned chin and her collarbone.

What startled me the most, however, was how peaceful she looked. I was so used to seeing her eyes bright and her face as alert as possible that she seemed to be someone different completely. She always seemed to look surprised when she was awake, but sleeping...her lips were pressed together gently and as I watched her eyelashes twitched gently against her cheeks from the movements of her eyes in her sleep.

I didn't want to wake her. I wanted to take a seat beside her and watch her until she woke up herself. I kneeled in front of her and hesitated, not wanting to ruin the perfect sight before me...then I heard Nena complaining about the early hour to David in the kitchen and decided I'd better get a move on.

"Aubrey," I said gently, expecting her eyes to open immediately. Apparently she wasn't as delicate in sleep as she seemed to be awake, so I called her a little more loudly.

She sighed gently and her lips pulled back the tiniest amount into a smile. I waited to see if she was going to wake...apparently not.

I leaned forward and rested my hand on her shoulder through the blanket gently, giving her the slightest of squeezes. "Aubrey, you have to get up now,"

Her hand moved more quickly than I was expecting to rest above mine, and her eyes opened slowly not long after. I was frozen, watching her as her eyelids swung open slightly and she studied the pillow in front of her, blinking a few times before she realized I was there and looked up to me.

Her fingers tightened a little over mine, still on her shoulder, and we stared at each other for a long time before she said anything.

"Hi,"

I grinned. "Good morning. Are you awake?"

There was another long pause, and it was weird seeing her so quiet. "I think I will be in a second. It's cold."

"Yeah,"

"You're warm." She fixed me a strong stare. "You're always warm."

I wasn't as cautious about our secrets with Aubrey as I was with everyone else - I usually kept physical contact to a bare minimum if I could help it, but if things went well, she would know soon enough anyway. I gave her a small smile, my eyes apologizing from taking her from her dreams. "You have to get up."

"Okay..." she finally pushed herself up onto her arm, keeping her hand atop mine and lowering it to the mattress. Her fingers tapped mine gently for a moment, and she lowered her eyes to watch before turning and grabbing my old green jacket and passing it to me. "Could you put this on while I get changed? I want it to be warm when I'm dressed so I don't freeze."

I put it on obediently for the first time in years, surprised at how well it fit me now that I was bigger than I'd been before. It had been my grandfather's originally, I think. I was sure I'd taken it when I was young and not let anyone else wear it. Until Aubrey.

I heard her scuffling around quickly inside her room as she breathed heavily in the cold air. She swore a couple of times in whispers and I laughed quietly, waiting for her to open the door. She did so after a couple of minutes, now dressed in a dress, knitted stockings, boots, and multiple long sleeves. She was shivering, and ran to me quickly; burrowing herself into my chest so her arms were inside the jacket I was still wearing. I felt my heart rate increase dramatically and hoped she wasn't taking much notice so soon after waking. I wondered if it was okay for me to wrap my arms around her to keep her there, but it seemed like my arms were going to do it either way, so I moved slowly and locked my fingers together behind her back, holding her to me as she pressed her forehead into my chest and her shivering passed slowly.

I took a moment to close my eyes and concentrate on what it felt like to hold her like this, and it almost took my breath away. She was just the perfect size for my arms, and her vanilla-like scent made me want to bury my face in her hair and breathe her in, but I held myself back.

"Did you need help with your bags?" I asked quietly when she moved away slightly and put her hands to her now-warm face.

"I'm not taking much...all of the clothes I'll need are back home. I knew they'd be too cold for the months we've had here. I only have one bag. Thank you, though."

The car ride to the airport would have been cramped and uncomfortable, if I hadn't been enjoying it as much as I was. Apparently Aubrey had gotten hardly any sleep, and I'd had none at all. Her presence had me in a complete state of calm as we were both silent in the back of the car, her right side completely pressed up against my left. Nena was on the other side of her, and all five of us had nothing to say this early in the morning. A quiet CD was playing through the car, but I couldn't tell you what it was.

I was dozing off beside the window, but woke with a start when I felt Aubrey curl into my side and link her arm through mine. Her hand was lost in the sleeve of the old green coat she was now wearing, but I could feel her hand resting atop my forearm and smirked when she yawned widely, her eyes closed as she sank further into her place and let herself drift off once more. It took a few minutes for me to really be able to believe she'd willingly turned to nap against my body, and then a further few minutes to calm myself back down to the state I'd been in previously, but once I was there, I couldn't keep my eyes open any longer. I yawned myself and readjusted my shoulders before letting my eyes slide closed.

Somewhere during our sleep my head had turned toward her and her face ended up pressed against my shoulder, but nothing was said when we were all woken by Lorraine - the only person who had stayed awake to drive.

We were like zombies as we trudged through the airport, waited for boarding, and then finally took our seats on the airplane. I don't think Aubrey said more than ten words the entire time, and we were asleep in our seats again not a quarter of an hour after take-off. The seats were uncomfortable - too small for me to relax in comfortably, but Aubrey beside me took my mind off the inconvenient leg space and the way my head fell and woke me whenever I got in a sleep deep enough.

We only had nine hours left of our flight when I woke again. I praised myself on depriving myself of sleep the night before, because sleeping seemed like the best thing to do during a flight. I was confused when my eyes first opened, but then the sweetest, most wonderful scent filled my nose; the mix of something so close to vanilla and something that was just one hundred percent _Aubrey_. Once I'd figured that out, I felt her curled into me once more and grinned as I looked down to watch her. She had her feet pulled up onto the seat with her, sitting how she typically did, but she rested sideways onto my shoulder with her arm wrapped around me loosely. David and Lorraine were seated behind me, and I hoped David hadn't gone for any walks lately and seen us in this position because I didn't know how he'd react.

We were experiencing minor turbulence not long after I woke, and I was relieved to see no one else seemed worried - I didn't really know how to react, seeing as it was my first time on an airplane. The seatbelt like came on and I bit my lip, wondering if my imprint was in a heavy sleep or not. Apparently not. As soon as I sat her up slightly, as gently as I could manage, her eyes shot awake and she looked around, taking a few seconds to remember where she was. She looked up and gave me a questioning look with eyes too wide for someone who had just woken up.

"Seatbelt time," I explained softly, pointing to the light ahead of us.

She put her seatbelt on without saying anything and yawned widely, stretching her arms over her head and her legs as far out into the aisle as she was able. "It got hotter..." she brushed the left side of her face, where the shorter bits of hair framing it were stuck to her skin. I let her blame it on the weather, not the fact that it was the part of her skin that had been resting against my shoulder.

She seemed troubled for the rest of the flight. She assured me it was just because she wasn't looking forward to the weather ahead of us, but I didn't completely believe that. She mostly tried to nap, ate, and looked out of the window while her sister behind her kicked the back of her chair until they had an audience as they argued over why God hadn't done them justice giving each other their sister.

Eventually Nena fell into a deep sleep and Aubrey took the remainder of her chocolate covered peanuts, blaming it on their father, who was also asleep when Nena woke up.

She sighed and stared out of the plane as the sun rose beside us, her feet pulled up on the seat so her chin could rest on her knees.

"What is it?"

"Nothing," she looked over her shoulder to watch me for a few seconds, then lowered her eyes to our neighbor's chair when I wouldn't look away. "I think...no. Maybe..."

She turned back to the window after that little one-sided conversation, and I didn't want to bother her with whatever was going on inside that beautiful head of hers. She would come around and explode when she felt the time was right.

The flight was strangely quiet, and I didn't know whether it was just because we were on an airplane surrounded by people, or whether she honestly just didn't want to talk. I hoped it was nothing too serious, because it was tearing me up inside to watch her stare at things with her eyes dull and her mouth limp. She was impatient when the plane landed. She tapped her foot the entire time through quarantine, until we left the baggage claim, then walked quickly in the direction of where her parents had said they would be meeting her uncle.

My heart increased ridiculously when she was out of my sight, and all I could think was that we'd lost her among all of these people. When I caught sight of her again her bag was left, forgotten at her feet, and a toddler with very loose chestnut curls exactly like her own was in her arms, kissing her cheek messily.

Nena appeared beside me and looped her arm through mine, leading me to her relatives as her parents overtook us and reached them first.

"Thank God for air-conditioning. It's gonna be a shock walking out there after spending this time in the coldest place ever." She let go of me for a moment to remove her t-shirt, so she was wearing only a singlet.

"It can't be that bad." I disagreed. It was already fairly warm, though we were under air-conditioning.

"You'll see." She let me go and ran to her uncle, setting her bags down more carefully than Aubrey had and wrapping her arms around the man standing with them. "Hey, Uncle Brian!"

"You got taller," the man said, pressing his hand against Nena's hair, as if to make her shorter. "You're gonna be taller than your father soon!"

"Never," she muttered and threw her father a dark look.

"And this is Seth," Lorraine said, putting her arm on my shoulder and pulling me forward. "Grace's friend."

"Nice to meet you, Seth." He held out his hand and I shook it without much worry - his hand was warm enough that he wouldn't notice my temperature as much. "We'll have to get going. Nic's been making lunch since before breakfast. She hasn't shut up about the next week since she found out you were coming."

"We missed you!" The tiny girl in Aubrey's arms announced, wrapping her hands around my imprint's shoulders. "Mummy said you'd play with my new presents."

"Of course I will, Tara." Aubrey gave her one last hug, then set her down on her feet. She picked up her bag before I could offer and followed her parents toward the large doors, Tara holding onto the bottom of the dress she had changed into. Upon realizing this, I really studied her and noticed her hair was covering her bare arms...I'd never seen her bare arms before. They were more tanned than her face and hands, and darker on the very tops of her shoulders, where the sun rested. She had a small birth mark on her right forearm and a freckle above her left wrist. I like her arms...

"I don't want to go out there..." she hesitated beside me while her parents walked ahead of us, and Tara blew a raspberry when hot air filled the room in front of us from the automatic doors. She threw me an annoyed look and took her cousin's hand. "I want to go back to Forks."

She was right - the weather was ridiculous. Living in a place where the weather never reached too high a temperature had made me think I was indestructible when it came to my body temperature, but I hadn't experienced the discomfort of being in an environment where the air was just as hot as I was.

We piled into Brian's truck - it had seven seats - and Nena ordered the air conditioner be turned on straight away as we boiled and rolled down the windows as quickly as we could. Aubrey leaned her head back on the seat and closed her eyes, fanning herself with her hands as the edges of her face became sweaty...I had to force myself to look away. She was more beautiful than anyone else I could ever imagine.

"How hot it is?"

"Thirty-eight."

"It was hotter last week." Tara announced. "Chimney drowned in the pool."

"Oh, no!" Aubrey's hand flew to her mouth and she looked up to me. "Her guinea pig."

Australia wasn't what I'd expected. Instead of the red dirt roads I'd seen in movies and small shacks with peeling paint, there were black tar roads, tall buildings you wouldn't find in Forks or La Push and very modern-looking houses and entertainment facilities. We were halfway across the Sydney Harbor Bridge, which was something I'd seen every time Australia was brought up, before I realized it was even close to us. The cars lessened as we got further away from Sydney, and it took a couple of hours to get to Aubrey's town, where just about everyone walking on the sides of the road were half-dressed in swim suits, quite a few holding surfboards.

"I'm disappointed," I murmured to Aubrey quietly with a small smirk.

"Why?"

"I haven't seen a single kangaroo."

She laughed quietly. "You'll see one before you leave. Not here, though."

The house we stopped in front of was of reasonable size with a large front yard. There were yellow shutters on the outside and light yellow and blue cushions on the white hanging swing on the porch to the left of a decorative white door. A large window faced us which was, of course, covered in lace on the opposite side. There was a large tree in the center of the yard and the thick grass was dried in random areas from the unforgiving weather.

"We're home," Aubrey sang with a wide smile, her eyes bright as she looked past me, out the car window.


	10. Inside My World

_Special thank yous to PainfullyShy, __Pinkkitten1, Shouldna, stina60, Deadtom77 and guest reviewer._

* * *

**I came here with one suitcase,  
And no idea,**

**Inside my world,  
Will that be enough**

_-Inside my World, _Ramin Karimloo

* * *

**Chapter Nine - Inside My World**

"This used to be our house." Aubrey told me as we grabbed our bags and tried not to pay attention to the heat. "Brian, Nicole and Tara moved in when we left so we wouldn't have to give it up. Tara moved into Nena's room, because it's a bit bigger than mine, so hopefully mine's still the same."

Inside the house was painted beige and deep purple with a square-shaped staircase to the left of the entry foyer. The dining table was before us, on the other side of the living room and I could see a pool in the large back yard through the double glass doors.

Apparently that was one of the first things Nena noticed, as well.

"You got a pool?!" She asked loudly as a woman's voice called from the kitchen.

She came around the corner into the dining room quickly, and I immediately thought of her as an older version of Nena, with the same wildly thick curls, though the woman's were a sandy blonde - the color I imagine Nena's would have been if they hadn't been dyed red. They also had the same deep blue eyes, but the woman's skin was more harshly tanned than Nena's on her shoulders and collarbone, resulting in a few scattered freckles. "Oh, it's so good to see you!" She grabbed Lorraine first and then moved to David.

Nena just about tackled her when she saw her and Aubrey squeezed her so tight her arms were shaking. "Shut the door, Nena, I've got the A/C on." She waved her hand at her youngest niece and Nena obeyed as the woman turned to me. "Is this the wonderful Seth?"

I shook her hand and she grinned up at me. "Finally! Someone in the house is taller than me. I can't wear heels out because my husband and I are the same height. You're coming out with me sometime this week." She laughed and looked around at everyone. "I've been cooking for a year, I swear. Go put your bags away and wash up and we'll have brunch."

Aubrey looped her arm through mine and led me to the stairway, letting go on the way as our arms because too clammy. She didn't speak, and I glanced at her a couple of times as she wobbled on her way up the stairs, her eye-lids half-closed from jetlag. I yawned widely myself and shook my head as we arrived at the second story. Aubrey's lips twisted as she moved to the right, and we entered a large, open room with a day bed and another single bed on either side. There was a computer and a couple of bookcases, so it was obviously the study. There was no door to close it, but a glass door covered by curtains which looked out onto a small porch.

"I don't know who will be sleeping here, but I hope it's Nena and Tara. I don't want to be out here with Nena grinding her teeth in her sleep all night," she was silent for a moment, thoughtful, and swayed again. I put my arms out behind her in case she fell, but she didn't. "Anyway, you can read any of these books or use the computer whenever you want." She turned straight away and walked past me and the top of the staircase, in the opposite direction. "Bathroom, Nena's old room...you can stay there," she stopped at the last door and opened it, leaning against it heavily. "This is my old room." She pulled me inside with her. There was a large bed right in front of us that was covered a comfortable-looking blanket, though I knew it wouldn't be needed. An old piano was against the wall, squished beside a chest of drawers. A small bag of shells and pebbles lay open under a wide window heavily clothed with off-white lace curtains hanging to the floor. The window had been opened, so the room was filled with hot air, but Aubrey closed it now that the door was open with the air-conditioned air flowing in slowly. A tiny bookshelf held a television and CDs, and I noticed more than one copy of Aladdin in the small selection of DVDs.

"They kept it just how it was!" she said happily, crossing to a closet that had been built into the wall and opening it to a great number of dresses. "Oh...but some of Nena's shirts have been put in here. And the blankets are different. I hope that means they're in Nena's old room."

When Aubrey fell into the wall on her way out of the room, I suggested she have a nap. She nodded slowly as she wandered away and I heard her call down the stairs that she'd be an hour or so before she made it downstairs for brunch.

I left the door opened so more of the cool air could come inside and kicked off my shoes before resting my head against the pillow and trying to cool down.

This weather was going to take some getting used to.

* * *

**Aubrey's POV**

It took me a little longer than I'd hoped to recover from jet lag. I felt like I ruined everyone's first day back in Australia, but they all kept assuring me that I did no such thing. Aunty Nicole had had the day planned and made a ton of food, but I'd been too tired to even lift my fork to my mouth.

I felt the most bad about Seth being stuck in a house with a bunch of people he didn't know while I kept resetting my alarm, but he seemed to get along fine with everyone and seemed comfortable when I finally came downstairs at half-past ten that night.

I slept in on the last day of the year, as well, only waking when I felt something at my left nostril. I blinked a few times before I looked up and screamed as best I could only seconds after sleeping. Mae screamed too, and we squeezed each other so tight my ribs hurt.

"I missed you so much!" I cried once we let each other go and moved over so she could fit in bed with me. "I forgot how good your hugs were!"

"Look! You got me up early. I was going to come over yesterday, but Nena answered your phone and said you were being a lazy slob so I thought I'd wait until today." I closed my eyes again while she was talking and buried my face in my pillow. I don't think I remembered how to be awake at that point, and I was kind of wishing Mae would want to take a nap, but I woke up a great deal when Seth's voice sounded from my door. I hadn't even heard him approach, which was weird, because he was so big.

"Aubrey?"

We both turned toward the door immediately, and I was worried about what would be going on with Mae's face, because she was in front of me and she wasn't very good at being stealthy when it came to attractive people.

Seth looked a little uncomfortable at being stared down by Mae, but he continued with a small smile. "Breakfast is ready."

"Okay, I'm coming," I realized I was being horrible and called Seth back when he made to go downstairs. "Seth, this is Mae. Mae, Seth."

"I've heard _so much_, Seth." Mae said. I could hear the smile in her voice. "So much,"

I chewed on my lip so hard I couldn't concentrate on what else they were saying after that, and when Mae turned to me with wide eyes and her mouth hanging open I slapped her gently on her right cheek.

"Oh, please," she scoffed. "No wonder you couldn't sent me a photo of him! My computer would have overheated."

"Shut up! You're being too loud! He probably hasn't even gotten down the stairs yet!"

"You told me he was hot, but - agh!" she threw her hands up and shook her head. "Please have his babies, Grace. Imagine how adorable his babies would be -"

"I'm hungry." I pushed my pillow against her face, hoping just a little bit I would smother her, and grabbed the dress I'd pulled from my closet the night before. It was nice wearing short, sleeveless dresses again. I didn't think I'd miss it.

Everyone was either sitting around the table or the counter when I came downstairs, except for dad and Uncle Brian, who were talking outside.

I got myself a plate of fruit and Nicole's homemade pancakes and sat in between Mae and Seth, who was smirking to himself, at the table while Tara gave us a speech about walruses.

"Josh is coming over," Mae told me as we stuffed our faces. "I don't know when, but I'm pretty excited that he's going to shut up about all of this," she paused to swallow her food before explaining. "All we've heard for a month is Grace this, and Grace that, and I'm getting sick of it! You know I love him, but seriously, he needs to get an obsession with someone else."

"Mae," I scolded her uncomfortably. "It's not an obsession. He's like my brother. I think this is the first time in our lives we haven't seen each other for so long."

She muttered something, and I thought I made out the word 'incest', but I wasn't sure so I just ignored her. "He wants to take you to the fireworks at the beach tonight."

"The nine o'clock or midnight ones?" I asked. _Please be nine, please be nine, please be nine... _If it was nine, I could make everyone tag along and it could be a family event. Tara wouldn't last until midnight, and she loved the fireworks.

"Midnight ones, I'd say. He was going to throw a party until he found out you were coming home. Everyone's pissed because his parties are awesome."

Seth left my side without saying anything and disappeared in the direction of the stairs, and I frowned after him.

"Can you come see them?"

"Nope," she grinned. "Andrew's got our evening planned. We might be there for the early show, but he's making me a late dinner. His parents are in Bali again."

"Why are you smiling like that?" I asked uneasily when she kept grinning at me with the same stupid expression.

"Seth likes you," she whispered, even though he wasn't around anymore.

"What? Why would you say that?"

"He left when I said all that stuff about Josh! I was watching him - he looked like he didn't know what to do when I started up about all of it."

"And 'all of it' was completely ridiculous, by the way. There's nothing there between Josh and me. You just like making this stuff up because your dream's to go on double dates."

"Trust me," she held her hands up, her fork in her right and syrup running down toward her arm. "My idea of a double date does not involve Josh in any way."

"He doesn't like me like that," I insisted.

"He wants to _do you!" _she grinned again and I snorted and rolled my eyes.

"I'm so glad you've still got your crude streak." I sighed and climbed to my feet, putting my scraped plate beside the sink and running my hands under the water.

Mae and I sat in the lounge room with Tara for a good part of the morning. I heard the shower running upstairs and figured Seth was preparing himself for the day, but it wasn't until a knock sounded on the front door that he actually made an appearance again.

I cried out gleefully and wrapped my arms around Josh, who was standing on the opposite side with a huge smile on his face. He lifted me off my feet at once and I felt his arms strain at my weight.

"I'm too heavy," I chirped as he lowered me to the ground.

"Nah, he's just a weakling." Mae called from the lounge room.

"I missed you," he said as he made his way inside. "I hope you remembered absolutely everything about your new house to tell me."

"I saw snow!" I bounced in place, and looked over my shoulder when Josh's attention was diverted.

"Oh! Seth, come here. Josh, this is Seth. Seth, Josh."

I watched them both closely when they shook hands. Josh was smiling, so I threw a satisfied look to Mae over my shoulder, but turned around quickly when she made a suggestive gesture using her arms and pelvis.

"Seth lives in the town just over from mine. He showed me the snow."

"You showed her the snow, so you thought it only fair to tag along and see the beach."

"Oh, he practically lives on the beach back in America," I put in. "It's a bit colder than here, but the whole time I was there it was practically winter, so..." I drifted off and my eyes stuck to the front door, waiting for someone to say something. No one did. Then Mae started humming from the lounge room, and I assumed this was what 'awkward' meant, so I grabbed both of their arms and steered them into the lounge room to take a seat beside Mae. Unfortunately Josh got there sooner, so he was seated in between Mae and myself with Seth on my other side. Mae sighed, so I could tell she wasn't happy, and then Josh sighed, and then I sighed, and then Seth stretched his arms in front of him and I was very aware of the way the muscles and veins stuck out in his arm.

"Josh, why don't you come and visit us anymore?" Tara asked from the other side of the lounge.

"Sorry, Tara. I'll come over next time my parents do, is that okay?"

We didn't really seem to be doing much, so I forced them to have a carpet picnic with me. Tara helped me make sandwiches, Mae swore at the air-conditioner when the temperature wouldn't decrease any more than it already had, and Josh and Seth talked about things I wasn't particularly interested in. Apparently Seth knew a thing or two about cars from Jake. I wondered if that had something to do with his job, and Josh just seemed happy to have someone to talk about these things with. Mae's dad was a mechanic, and Josh had studied under him for work experience during high school. He was going to start a course come March.

Tara built us a pretty extravagant nest to sit on, and I smirked when I saw Nena's blanket and pillows involved. Tara's toys were all present, too. She sat in Mae's lap, while Little Bear sat in her lap and got a face-full of grated cheese from her sandwich.

It was wonderful being in the comfy nest under the air-conditioner, but the most exciting thing about sitting there with my best friends was the way Seth's leg wound up pressed right against my own. While Josh told me about Bradley's 'little blonde adventure' last time they had gone into town, I pretended to listen while nodding and laughing whenever Mae did, but all the while pointing my toes into Seth's ankle and grinning when he wiggled his ankle back toward me.

Of course Josh brought up New Years, and I had to say that I didn't have any plans, because I didn't, and also I really wanted to see the fireworks.

"I thought we could catch the midnight fireworks, seeing as we've all gone the last few years..."

"Yeah, but it's not going to be the same without Mae and Andrew."

"Why can't you go, Mae?" Tara inquired.

Mae chuckled uncomfortably and said she had plans, while my face twisted up in disgust.

"Seth, do you mind going to the beach to see the fireworks?" Seth would have to come. I couldn't leave him here by himself while my parents went out with my aunt and uncle. What a terrible hostess.

"No, I'd love to," he agreed eagerly, and I frowned when I noticed he wasn't looking at me when he said this, but staring down Josh as if it were a challenge. I was going to have to slap him for that.

Mae left for Andrew's house a couple of hours before sunset, but Josh decided to hang around a bit more. I didn't mind, because I really had missed him, but I felt a bit bad for ignoring my guest when Seth curled himself up on the lounge behind us with a book and didn't speak for a couple of hours. Josh asked Nicole if she would like him to make dinner, and when she agreed the two of us made our way into the kitchen to get started. I noticed Seth turn around so he was facing us when as we did so, and saw him shake his head out of the corner of my eye when Josh handed me the knife and I began chopping vegetables. I was going to make a show of this and not hurt myself in any way so they wouldn't have the satisfaction of making jokes at my expense.

* * *

**Seth's POV**

"I just...I thought if I could take my hand off it fast enough -"

"You high-fived the fry pan!"

"To see if it was hot or not," Aubrey tucked her chin into her collarbone and pouted, and I grinned at how beautiful she looked.

I finished rubbing the burn cream into her hands and she stared down at them as I slowed, my fingers resting in the palms of them. There was a long moment where we were both just looking down at them, and I sighed heavily, wishing I could just wrap her in my arms and hold her until we both fell asleep. We were sitting in the guest bedroom, on the bed I'd been given, and I'd been lying on my pillow going through the events of the day when she'd knocked on the door wearing nothing but a large t-shirt (it was obviously too hot to wear anything else) and asked me to help her while she held the tube of burn cream awkwardly between her wrists.

"It's almost one in the morning." I murmured as I finally removed my hands from her own. Her shoulders drooped and she looked toward the door. _Don't leave._

"I was trying to get to sleep, but my hands were bothering me too much."

"Are they now?"

"They're just annoying. Enough to keep my mind on them." There was another long silent moment. "It's the last day of the year tomorrow."

"Is fireworks all you do to celebrate?"

"Most people get drunk," she said matter-of-factly. "I got a text from my friend Bianca today, and she and Bradley were going to the beach and she asked if I wanted to tag along, seeing as I'm home. Mae and Andrew said they'd go, too, and Josh, I imagine. I don't usually like the beach when it's sunny or hot, but it would probably be nice for a change seeing as Forks is so cold all of the time. Did you want to go?"

"Sure," I said immediately. "I'd like to meet more of your friends. Mae and Josh seemed nice."

"I have missed them," Aubrey agreed. "Don't think Bianca and Brad are the same, though. There's a reason why Mae and Josh are my _best_ friends. And you, of course." She grinned up at me and tapped me on the nose before climbing to her feet and making her way to the door. "Goodnight, Seth. I'll get ready and wake you up to go in the morning. Sweet dreams."


	11. You Picked Me

_Thank you dearly to Nictherat, oomf, Deadtom77, Avalongirl55, Shouldna, phoenica, . and all of the lovely guest reviewers. I'm sorry if I missed replying to someone - I've been so busy I can't keep track of myself!_

_The next chapter will be up within three days, I promise you!_

* * *

**Like an apple on a tree,  
Hiding out behind the leaves,  
I was difficult to reach but you picked me**

**Like a shell upon the beach,  
Just another pretty piece,  
I was difficult to see but you picked me**

_- You Picked Me, _A Fine Frenzy

* * *

**Chapter 10 - You Picked Me**

I woke up from a light tapping on the guest bedroom door, as promised. I yawned as I called for Aubrey to come in and she entered immediately, a skip in her step as she crossed to pull open the curtains over the windows. The room filled with a harsh sunlight and I groaned as I threw my arm over my head.

"Beach time," Aubrey stated. I couldn't tell whether she was happy with this or not, so I uncovered a portion of my face to gaze at her. She was wearing a bright yellow sundress, under which I could see the red straps of her bathing suit tied at the back of her neck. Her legs and arms were completely bare, and not for the first time in Australia, I couldn't seem to control where my eyes roved. Her legs were very slender, but solid, I was guessing from the dance she'd talked about in the past, and my fingers itched to trace the line of the muscle in her thigh, just over her knee.

"Well? Are you getting up?"

"I don't think I remember how..."

"What if I go downstairs and make toast and you meet me there in two minutes?"

"Deal," I groaned, rolling over and pressing my face into my pillow.

"Two minutes!" she reminded me, and I heard her quick footsteps travel out of my room and downstairs. I decided I might as well follow her, seeing as my heart seemed to go with her out the door and I immediately became anxious at her leave, so I rolled out of bed and kicked open the top of my suitcase. I dressed quickly, trying to ignore the heat, and moved downstairs, finding my imprint buttering toast in the kitchen.

She looked up, her face still tilted toward the counter, as I entered the living room and then her eyes slid back down to her toast, putting the butter knife down before she lifted it to her mouth and took a large bite out of the crust. I eyed the spread over it - something that looked kind of like tar.

"I made you toast," she told me, a moment before the toaster popped. She grinned and grabbed it, gasping at its temperature before she could drop it on a plate.

"Thank you," A flash of gray appeared beside me and I grinned as Shartzi, the family dog which had been left in Australia, followed me to my place in the kitchen. I'd met her the day after our arrival and whenever she was in the same room as me I would have her company. Aubrey got a little jealous at all of the attention I was getting the first night, but I think she was over it now. The dog usually stayed in her bedroom during the nights.

I stood beside my imprint now and watched as she picked up her piece of toast again and nibbled at the edge, her wide hazel eyes staring me down the entire time. Suddenly, a wicked glint flickered in them and she reached for a jar.

"Want to try some vegemite?"

"Uhh..." I'd heard bad things, but how could I say no when she looked so excited. I took it from her with a small smile and opened the lid. The smell was...not pleasant. I don't really know how to explain it, but it was incredible strong and...sour? It felt like it went straight up to the top of my nose and was going to stay there forever.

Aubrey took it back from me without a word and began spreading it _very_ thinly over my toast. She handed it back to me and I took a bite obediently. It wasn't as bad as I'd been expecting, but I still couldn't decide whether I liked it or not. I put honey on my second slice of toast and tried to keep my eyes away from Aubrey's legs, which were more revealed than before as she reached into the cupboard to put the jars back in their places.

She turned to face me again and I looked swiftly out of the window toward the pool, but I know she'd caught me staring.

"Mae will be over in a minute to pick us up. Andrew will be there, too, and we're getting Bradley, Josh and Samantha on our way. Mae's dad has a huge car, so we'll all be able to fit."

It took Mae another quarter of an hour to arrive at the house. In that time Aubrey had to explain to Tara that she couldn't come with us because it was too hot outside and a tall, thin boy with dark hair who looked perhaps a little younger than Aubrey walked in unannounced and Aubrey shrieked and ran to him, ramming her head into his stomach before wrapping her arms around his shoulders.

"Oh my gosh! Come back to America with us! Or marry Nena while we're still here so she can't roam when we get back! How long are you here for today? Take Nena to the fireworks tonight!"

"Where is Nena?" that was all the boy said, but then he saw me watching from the kitchen and he gathered a smirk on his face and looked down at Aubrey in a taunting manner. "Ooh...who's this?"

Aubrey lowered her head and I noticed her stand on his toe and he opened his mouth in a silent curse, but kept his cool.

"Shane, this is my friend Seth. Seth, this is Shane. Nena's...boyfriend? Are you guys still together? She wouldn't give me a straight answer, she just cried when I asked."

"Yeah, we're still together. We Skype every night."

"I don't want to know how you spend your time on Skype together, thank you very much." Aubrey sniffed before forcefully shoving him toward the stairs. He hardly budged, but chuckled and began making his way to where Nena was still sleeping, calling a greeting over his shoulder to me on the way.

Aubrey stood in the entry foyer for a long moment, humming as she stared at the floor, then the cartwheeled suddenly back into the living room and landed safely on her feet, her hands out to steady herself.

"I'm glad it's not too hot to go out today," she said quietly, looking back up at me again. Thirty-six degrees is bad, but not unbearable. I'm not leaving the caves today, except for cooling myself down in the water."

Mae's car _was_ huge. I could straighten myself up in my seat without worrying about hitting my head on the roof. Her boyfriend was a little taller than Aubrey with brown hair and skin and had apparently misplaced his shirt, and he seemed like a really nice guy. Very easy-going, so conversation flowed nicely between the four of us.

Josh was the next to climb in the car, and took a place next to Aubrey, resting his arm over the back of her seat. I rolled my eyes but greeted him politely and settled for leaning my leg against hers, to which she responded by nudging me back.

Then there were the two who just didn't seem to fit. Bradley made an appearance by pretending to get hit by Mae's car. Mae only responded by slamming him in the shoulder and forehead with her door when he walked up the side of her car. I noticed neither he nor Josh were wearing shirts either, and suddenly felt very over-dressed. Strange, seeing as me and my brothers were always getting strange looks from people on the reservation for exactly the same behavior, but in colder weather. Bianca gave the car her middle finger as she walked up the drive toward us, and mussed Aubrey's hair from her place in the very back seat, speaking too quickly and in too annoying a tone for me to really take the time to listen to her.

Mae took the car to a short street with only a few old houses. There was a dead end made of dirt surrounded by trees, and a pathway created by tire tracks and a separation of the trees. The car stopped and every set of eyes aside from my own looked around carefully before it started up again and travelled down the path slowly, carefully. There were puddles of water on either side of the path which the car sank into. The air was salty, but smelt like dirt, too, and Aubrey wound up her window and asked Mae to turn on the air conditioner until we got to the beach. Having the windows down wasn't cooling anyone anyway.

We only stopped once more, to let the air out of Mae's tires, and it took us around twenty minutes of travelling at a very slow pace to arrive at the open beach. Mae continued the drive until we arrived at a deserted part of the beach, where rock pools sat in the shallow water and a huge rock rose up in front of us.

Everyone jumped out of the car and then it was just Aubrey sitting inside, watching the water with her lips pursed. Bianca swore loudly and ran quickly to the shade of the rocks, her feet barely brushing against the hot sand. Mae and Andrew laughed as they walked with their arms around each other, their feet protected. I looked down at Aubrey's feet as she kicked them over the sand, still sitting in the car.

"You don't have shoes."

"I don't own any thongs. My feet look ugly in them and people have made comments before."

I turned my back to her and she laughed and climbed on, locking her feet together in front of me. We followed the rest of them to the rock, which I realised when we got closer was actually a collection of caves, and we all wandered inside, spreading out towels and making ourselves comfortable while Aubrey and Mae got out sunscreen and lathered their skin in it.

"Are your feet sore?" Aubrey asked me worriedly when I set her back down on her own.

"Nah, they're okay."

"But you're not wearing any shoes either."

"I'm fine, I promise. My feet are used to walking around with no shoes on, so I don't feel all that much anymore."

She leaned forward so that her ribs were pressed against her crossed legs and ran her fingertips gently along the arch of my foot. "They're very rough. Like Shartzi's feet. But hers are fun to grab because she makes funny noises."

Everyone spent the first few minutes complaining about the heat, then Mae told them to take action or shut up so we got rid of our clothes and made our way to the water. Everyone was running to get off the hot sand, but I couldn't look away from Aubrey in her red swim suit in front of me so I quickened my pace and submerged myself first. I stayed under just long enough to tell myself to get a grip and when I broke the surface again heard laughing from the group around me.

The top of Aubrey's head and her face was still dry, but up to her shoulders was completely covered with water and she ran her hands over the surface in front of her. Her eyes slipped from Bianca, who was talking to her, to me, and I grinned back before she quickly looked away.

"What are the beaches like in America?" a voice beside me asked.

I turned in the direction of Brad and Josh, who were both watching me curiously.

"I live right on the beach on the reservation, but we don't have many days like this. Usually when we have sun throughout the day it's packed, but I can't remember it ever being this hot."

"Do you mind the weather?"

"I think it'll take a bit of getting used to, but I'll manage."

"Yeah, I think just about anyone would manage for a piece of Aubrey." Brad grinned and Josh swore at him before pushing him under. I didn't really have anything to say to that, so I started up a conversation with Mae and her boyfriend until they started wandering back to the caves with Aubrey and Bianca.

"Is anyone coming to the fireworks tonight? I want to fill up on fairy floss." Aubrey asked eagerly once we were seated.

"Nah, we're having dinner." Drew answered, wrapping his arm around Mae's shoulders. "We might be there for the nine o'clock show, but not midnight."

"I'm going. Just to find hot boys, but I'll be there." Bianca laughed and Aubrey smirked, but didn't say anything. She began playing with the corner of her towel and didn't say much for a little while, but then went back to the water when Josh called for her. Mae and Drew followed after a moment, and I realised getting up now and leaving Bianca here by herself would just be rude, so I stayed where I was. I allowed myself to watch her this time as she reached the water and walked slowly into a deeper point, screaming something at Brad when he splashed her with water and it went in her eyes.

"Ahh..." Apparently Bianca was aware of my staring. "Have a thing for Grace, do we?"

I looked back, keeping what I hoped was an innocent expression on my face and raised an eyebrow.

"Oh, please. We were all talking about whether or not something's happened between the two of you yet."

I thought back to holding her from time to time, her hand in my own, but my lips twisted and I shook my head. "There's nothing between us. We've just been spending a lot of time together because she doesn't know too many people in Forks yet. And I've got a lot of spare time right now, so -"

"But you like her."

I paused, found out, and settled for smirking sheepishly. "Do you think she knows?" I asked quietly. I must have been easier to read than I thought.

"Grace?" Bianca giggled. "Don't be stupid. She didn't even realize Jack Huddington was obsessed with her, even when he started following her at school. He used to make sure they sat next to each other in all of the classes they had together and everything," she snorted. "It was a bit pathetic on his part, but I guess he was losing his touch at that point with her being so oblivious and everything. She's still the only girl who's ever turned him down, I think."

"Yeah, she could have anyone." I murmured, looking back to my imprint, but not before I saw the annoyed look on my companion's face. Unfortunately I chose the wrong time to look back. Josh was holding her waist tightly as Brad put seaweed in her hair. She was screaming and objecting to the two of them as she thrashed around in her friend's arms, her legs kicking so wildly they were splashing everyone. I immediately felt the urge to get over there as quickly as possible and tear their arms away from her and tell them to piss off, but I knew that wouldn't be all that great for my reputation with her friends.

"Don't worry about Josh, either," she said, noticing the dark look on my face as I glared out at him holding her. "They never have been and never will be."

"Doesn't seem that way."

"They're like brother and sister," she said, and I gave her a long stare. "Seriously! They've known each other since Grace was born! Their dads used to work together, and it would be wrong if something happened there."

"That's a relief." I muttered, too quietly for her to hear. She didn't even notice I'd talked. But something else hit me when this left my mouth. Owen. She always spoke as though she never even saw him, but shortly before we'd left America she'd left my house earlier than usual to visit him. I think the guys were sick of hearing my mope about it, so they'd all decided to drop by his house while they were on patrol that night and give him a scare. They wouldn't have though, because Jake would have killed them.

When the sun started moving away from the center of the sky and the shadows were cast along the beach from the dunes opposite the water, Aubrey made her way back up the beach. I'd gone back in the water a couple of times, but I preferred to sit and watch, where I didn't have the temptation to grab her and not let go again. She skipped the short walk to where I was sitting, at the part of the beach where the water was rushing up to lick my feet. Her cheeks were pink from the sun and her hair was wet and stuck to the sides of her face. She grabbed her towel and rubbed her hair roughly before wrapping it around her shoulders and hiding her swim suit.

She gave me a wide smile and held out her hand, as if to help pull me to my feet. "Let's go to the rock pools."

She led the way around the main cave we'd been sitting in earlier, and her friends noticed.

"Where are you going?" Josh called while Bianca held two thumbs up, a sly smile on her face.

"Rock pools." Aubrey called back over her shoulder, completely oblivious to them.

She looked almost the happiest I'd ever seen her when we got to them. She hadn't worn her shoes because the sand wasn't as hot as it had been now, and also so she could climb over the rocks easier, but it looked like the rocks were hurting her feet. I wanted to offer to carry her over them, but I knew she'd reject my help. She grabbed my hand again to pull me to a certain pool, and it was only when we were sitting on a huge patch of sea grass that I allowed her to take her own back. She dipped her finger into the water.

"Anemones!" she sang delightedly, brushing her fingertip along one of the deep red sea creatures as gently as she could. The fiery red tentacles sucked back into its hiding place immediately and she grinned. "Touch one!"

"No, it's alright."

"You've never touched one before, have you?" she asked, giving me a doubtful, yet mischievous look.

"I don't go out of my way to poke things in the water. They look gross."

She laughed quietly. "Who would have thought someone as big and strong as you could be scared of something as tiny as a little squishy anemone?"

"I'm not _scared_ of them...they just look like they'd feel really, really bad."

"Feel like what?"

"I don't know...like a rotten egg that's been half-cooked."

"Touch it," she grabbed my hand and pulled it to the water. I sighed and ran my finger along the outside of the anemone, just as she had done before, but more gently. The tentacles didn't seem bothered by me at all, and stayed outside of their home, and I saw Aubrey frown at it out of the corner of my eye.

"It's like jelly," she said slowly. "Don't you think?"

I nodded, knowing she meant Jell-O, because we'd had that discussion once before. "Yeah, it is." I sighed and lifted my hand from the water once again. "It pains me to say this, but they actually don't feel too bad."

She laughed quietly and stood, walking on the dried sea grass carefully on her way to the next rock pool so her feet weren't getting torn up on the rocks. She bent at a larger rock pool and put her hand in, picking something up extremely carefully and resting it on the back of her hand. It was a small brown and green starfish, and it looked as though it made her very happy.

I followed her to the pool and sat beside her. This one was a lot deeper than the other and had a small valley carved into the rock that led out, into the ocean. She dipped her feet into the water and tangled her toes around the seaweed, putting the starfish gently back where she'd found it. I looked around the pool, shocked to see how many starfish were actually residing in the one pool. There would have to be over a hundred. There were a couple on the other side of the pool that were out of the water that was quickly getting higher, but most were under the rock we were sitting on, crowded together to create one huge dark area I had previously thought to be a shadow.

"Look," she bent down and pulled off a string of seaweed that looked like a heap of fingernail-sized, round beads all threaded together. She turned it upside down in her fingers and dug her thumb underneath the first pod, flicking it upward so it bounced away from the next as though it had a spring behind it. It landed a few feet from us and Aubrey smirked before doing it again.

I picked some for myself and did the same, not noticing how quickly the tide was coming in until a certain wave rushed up and hit the rock behind us, spraying both of us with white water. Aubrey squealed and laughed, rocking forward before pulling her feet up, out of the pool to stand. "That was refreshing."

"We should go back before it traps us in." I said as I stood, looking back in the direction we came from. The water had rushed up there too, and I could tell it would create a river from the cliff between where we had come from and where we were now in less than half an hour.

"Okay," she took her time on the rocks, flinching at some parts. I chewed my lip as I went back for her, lifting her despite her complaints and set her down once we reached the sand again.

"Thank you," she said quietly. "But that was unnecessary."

"No, it wasn't. I didn't want to wait ten minutes just for you to get off the rocks."

She rolled her eyes and bumped her hip into my thigh before running back to where her friends were still in the water, but instead of joining them, sat in the place I had claimed earlier and waited for me to join her.


	12. Give Me a Reason

_Thank you, thank you, thank you to lunasky99, Nictherat, Shouldna, 5FreakyFingers, Kopycat and Rowandasky for their reviews. You guys make me so happy!_

_And didn't I promise I would be back soon? I can barely keep my eyes open, so sorry for any errors in this chapter._

* * *

**Give me a reason to fall in love,  
Take my hand and let's dance,**

**I wanna dream away with you tonight,  
We can go anywhere you would like,  
I wanna feel how I wanna feel forever**

_-Reasons to Love You, _Meiko

* * *

**Chapter 11 - Give Me a Reason**

**Aubrey's POV**

I was a little bit sunburned after the beach, so as soon as I got home I sat under the air-conditioning watching movies with Tara, Nena and Seth while I rubbed moisturisers into my cheeks, shoulders and nose. Seth pressed his fingers to my left cheek, so gently, and I pouted up at him. For the first time I couldn't feel the heat radiating off his skin.

I accidentally fell asleep halfway through _Tangled _with my head in Nena's lap and my feet in Seth's and only woke up when Tara tugged on my hair spilling off the side of the lounge.

"Aunty Lorraine said you had to get ready before dinner because we're going to the fireworks tonight?"

"Are you coming to the fireworks too?" I yawned. No one else was in the lounge room anymore.

"Yes, but mummy said you're staying longer. You have to get ready."

"Yeah, it's going to take longer because I got sunburned." I pouted back at her and tried to wake myself up a little bit before going up to take a shower. It had always been more difficult for myself to turn red in comparison to my friends, but I did have a little bit of colour. Not enough for it to hurt, but judging by the ridiculous lines on my neck, I was going to have a stupid tan line for quite a while.

I was still sleepy, so I spent about ten minutes in the shower just staring at the wall with my head under the water, but then I washed my hair and got rid of the gross salty feeling from the beach. When I was finished I changed into a small, comfortable dress and started on my makeup, concentrating on my cheeks to hide the pink tinge as best I could.

Seth knocked on the door when I was almost finished. He was wearing a pair of shorts and a shirt I had never seen before - dressier than his usual wear, and I eyed him for a moment before turning my attention back to the mirror in front of me. Shartzi followed him in and rested her chin on my feet and I sighed.

"Don't pretend you still love me. You've been following Seth around since we got here."

"You know she still loves you," he said quietly from beside the door. I looked up and twisted my lips.

"You look nice."

"So do you,"

I snorted. "I'm wearing something a little more presentable than this old thing. Look - it has holes in it."

"Tara's been telling me all about the fireworks. I was just given a list of all the colours she saw last year. She's excited about tonight."

"She gets scared of them." I giggled. "She's excited now, but once they start making noise she'll freak out. And then she won't want anything to do with you, because you're the closest to the sky."

I glanced back at him for a moment, but felt the need to look away almost immediately. Strange. I could feel him watching me while I finished off my face and unwrapped my hair from my towel. Why couldn't I look at him?!

I chose a small, sleeveless coral dress with white spots. I couldn't spin around in it too fast because it was flared and my underwear had been shown off a few more times than I was happy about when I'd worn it in the past, so I put my old ballet shorts on underneath and brushed my hair. I couldn't be bothered drying and curling it, so I would just leave it be.

The entire family was going, so we sat ourselves in two cars and made our way to the waterfront where the fireworks were held every year. Josh's family were meeting us there for dinner at the club that held the event, and we met them at the entrance.

After everyone greeted each other Josh took my arm and wound it through his. I frowned as I walked in with him, because I'd never known him to do that, but I didn't pull away. He'd been my best friend for years and what if I hurt his feelings?

Tara took my free hand and I concentrated on the sounds of my family talking around me as we neared the restaurant section of the club and Josh released my arm just as we made it to the double glass doors, which my father held open for me.

I thanked him quietly and pulled Tara in alongside me, turning to look over my shoulder at Josh and Seth, both falling behind the rest of us. Josh was looking back and caught my eye, but Seth looked just as confused as I felt.

"We'll be in in a second," Josh promised, nodding toward the restaurant. The rest of our families were filling the building around me so I tugged Tara to a table and let her have the windowseat, sure to tell Nena to leave a place for Seth so he would be sitting between two people he knew. Shane was sitting on her other side, so Seth probably wouldn't be able to hope for too much of a conversation from that direction.

My eyes wandered from the people around the table, toward the outside of the restaurant, to where I could see the back of Seth and the left side of Josh, who was using his hands as he talked. I couldn't see much of his face because Seth was so tall, but he seemed to be doing most of the talking. I saw Seth shake his head and Josh opened his mouth to speak again, but a second later they were making their way into the restaurant, as well.

"What was that about?" I questioned Seth quietly when he finally got to the table. He and Josh hadn't even looked at each other since they'd come inside.

"Just getting to know each other a little better," he answered quietly. I frowned at the table between us and cast a glance down to the other end of the table. Josh was already looking at me, but gave a small twist of his lips that didn't really seem like a smile at all and then looked away. Apparently I wasn't going to be invited into this conversation.

**Seth's POV**

Nena fell into step beside me as I watched Josh grab Aubrey at the entrance to the large building stationed beside the water. I chewed on my lip as she spoke, but tried to keep conversation as best I could. Her...boyfriend? Shane was beside her as well, and they told me they were staying for the late fireworks, but not to tell Aubrey because she would disapprove of her younger sister being out so late. I agreed with a small chuckle and noticed as we reached the restaurant Josh let go of Aubrey and turned to look at me instead. I recognised the look as one to ask me to stay behind.

"They have the nicest food here, Seth, you're gonna love it." Nicole said, resting her hand on my arm as she walked in ahead of me. I murmured something to her and took a step back as Josh joined me, watching him when he waved David and Aubrey off and said we'd be in in a second.

Josh turned so he was facing me, and I gathered I wouldn't be able to go in and order until I'd heard everything he had to say, so I leant against the wall instead. "Hey, Josh,"

"Seth," he started, looking into the restaurant, perhaps to check if we were being watched. "What is it between you and Grace?"

I frowned a little. He didn't waste any time getting straight to the point. "Um...we're friends?"

"Is that is?" he asked abruptly.

"I think - yeah," I cleared my throat uncomfortably. "Did you interrogate Aubrey, as well?"

"Of course I didn't. She'd think I was mad. She's never picked up on any hints involving this kind of thing from anyone."

I wondered if he knew from personal experience, because I was starting to believe Mae's conspiracies, but acted ignorant. "What thing?"

He rolled his eyes and gave me a look which told me to drop it. "Seriously. She must be the only person who hasn't noticed, if she's as oblivious to everything as she lets on. No one looks at someone like _that_ unless there's something behind it."

I wasn't stupid. I knew imprints were impossible to down-play, but I had at least hoped it wuold seem as though I just thought of her as my best friend whilst we were in Australia. I opened my mouth to say something to Josh, but I don't know what was I was hoping would come out. Thankfully, Josh decided to continue for me.

"So what else is behind it? Do you care about her, or are you just interested? Because I don't know how the girls are where you come from, but she's one of the best around here. And we have a lot of lookers. And she's been hurt by someone before and blamed her looks for it, so if all you're trying to get out of her is -"

"I care about her." I said immediately. "A lot. She's...one of the best from Forks and LaPush, too. _The_ best," I corrected myself. "And that's why it keeps surprising me that she's the perfect girl to talk to, as well." I cut myself off before I rambled about her to someone who would probably end up thinking I was insane.

He looked surprised for a few seconds, then nodded slowly. "Good, then. Just so I know," he straightened up and took a couple of steps toward the door, then spun back around to face me. "but if you _do_ manage to make her sad, I'll know abot it, okay? And I won't be alone against you. Everyone loves Grace. You'd be lucky to get away with anything."

It probably would have been funny to any of the guys back at home if they had been watching in on his little speech, but not to me. I could tell how serious Josh was with his speech. If I did anything to upset Aubrey, he wasn't going to forgive me.

Something tugged at my mind before he could get too far away from me, and I felt a little terrible that it hadn't come to mind since we'd left on the trip. He stopped when I called out to him. "Aubrey has a boyfriend back in Forks."

"What?" his face, once again turned to me, had fallen and I didn't know whether it was because he was worried or disappointed.

"His name's Owen. They've been dating for a few months, I think."

"I've never even heard of him."

"Yeah, she doesn't talk about him much..."

"Well, what's he like?"

"I've only met him once, and he's...he seemed like an ass hole. He tells her not to talk so much and loves himself, but he seems like a pretty typical eighteen-year-old guy." I smirked when Josh hesitated at my choice of words and resisted laughing before I followed him inside the restaurant.

The only space left was between the Butterfield girls and Nena didn't even look up as I took my place. Aubrey did, however, though she didn't look at me, just turned her face toward me, but kept her eyes on the table. "What was that about?" her voice was gentle, curious, but she was obviously trying not to seem too interested.

"Just getting to know each other a little better," I said easily.

Her eyes slid to where Josh was sitting and were wide, blank for a few moments until she lowered her head again and sipped on her straw silently. I knew the legal drinking age in Australia was eighteen, and I heard Josh order beer for himself, but Aubrey seemed perfectly content with her tomato juice and a lemon wedge.

By the time we were finished out meals it was almost time for the first showing of fire works. Tara complained she had eaten too much from her place on Aubrey's back, then insisted she needded fairy floss from a stall set up beside the water.

"Are you excited to see them?" Aubrey asked her cousin when we'd finally found a place to sit to watch them.

Tara nodded, but her eyes were wide and Aubrey smirked up at me. "You're not scared, are you Tara?"

"Once the boy with the dark hair in our street got landed on by a fire cracker and he caught on fire."

"I don't think that's true," Aubrey disagreed, taking a bit of the fairy floss. "He was just making up stories again."

The fireworks lasted around ten minutes. Tara ended up crying in her mother's arms while everyone tried to assure her it was okay, then they decided it was time for them to go home. They were leaving one of the cars and Aubrey was dropping Josh off at his house on the way back. Nena and Shane dissapeared shortly after everyone else had left, and then it was just myself, Aubrey and Josh. And what became one of the longest three hour periods of my life.

Josh seemed to hover over her when it was just the three of us, and I sat back and watched as if it didn't matter. It made me smile when Aubrey wandered closer to me, though. Josh didn't seem to realise.

When a girl he knew ran forward and claimed his attention Aubrey nodded toward another food stand and took her place at the end of the queue. I moved to stand beside her and waited for her to speak.

"I thought I would see heaps of people I went to school with, but I suppose everyone's old enough to be out now. Why would they waste their time at something like this?"

"I don't mind being here. It's a nice night. And the moon's huge..."

"Yeah, it always looks really big out here," she grinned and looked back at it. "Bianca was trying to convince me to go out with her while we're here, but I told her no. We only have a couple of days left until we need to go back to America anyway, and there's tonnes I want to show you." She was silent for a moment, and then looked up at me with a raised eyebrow. "What was she talking to you about at the beach?"

"Nothing," I said quickly. "Just asking about the area we live around and everything. A couple of questions about First Beach, I think. Nothing exciting."

"Oh," the line shuffled forward as one more person got what they'd ordered and I noticed Aubrey move a few inches closer to me as we took another step. Her chin rested on her shoulder when she turned to look back at Josh and I couldn't help myself as I reached in between us and took her hand in my own, holding it inconspicuously in between us. Her head whipped around to face the front of the line again and she wouldn't look at me, but her eyes subtly looked down to our joined hands. I felt her pulse increase through her fingers on mine, and it was a few seconds before she reached. Her thumb brushed back and forth against my hand, as if she were adjusting to the feel of it, testing it out, and I squeezed her hand back in response.

Her lips pressed into the most secretive of smiles and I looked away from her casually, our hands hidden between the people on either side of us. It was as if we were doing something forbidden and hiding it somewhere where we hoped we would be caught.

Aubrey ordered a hotdog and I did the same, paying for them before she was able. We wandered out of the line slowly, our hands still joined, but she let go when Josh turned from his friend to watch us as we neared them. The girl said goodnight to him and left and Aubrey's eyes followed her, my imprints hands both securely around her hotdog now and out of my reach.

"Who was that? Was she your New Year's kiss, Josh?" she asked. There was just an hour til midnight left now.

"Nah, I don't have one this year. What about you?" his eyes roamed to my face, but I pretended not to see.

"When have I ever had a New Year's kiss?" Aubrey scoffed.

"Seth told me you have a boyfriend." Now he turned to me and watched me until I looked back at him, as if he was daring me to disagree. He'd seen us holding hands.

"Is that what Seth said?" Aubrey mused quietly. "Do you really think I have someone else from America around? How would I kiss Owen while he's in America?" she marched forward, leaving the two of us to follow after her.

**Aubrey's POV**

I was stupid enough to sit on a bench facing the water, and of course Seth and Josh sat on either side of me. I didn't really say much while we were there, and neither of them had anything to say to each other, so for the most part the three of us people-watched until the fireworks started. We saw Nena and Shane interacting in a way I never wanted to experience ever again for as long as I lived, and then Josh shooed them away and Nena showed me her middle finger as they disappeared.

When the fireworks were announced the three of us stood and walked to the water's edge to stand in the crowd of hundreds as all eyes turned upwards towards the sky. Josh was standing extra close to me so his arm was pressed against mine, and I didn't know if he was still being all big-brother protective over me around Seth, or just didn't realise he was so close. Even though it was a warm, muggy night beside the water and Josh was a whole lot cooler than Seth to stand beside, I wished Seth's arm was pressed against mine instead.

The bright colous began to fill the sky, accompanied by the bangs that had caused Tara's tears earlier. Seth was completely still and silent on my left side, but Josh figeted on my right. I gathered up enough courage a couple of minutes into the display and gently brushed the back of Seth's hand with my knuckles. His hand caught mine before it could fall back to my side and I let out a rush of air in a confused sigh and tightened my fingers around his.


End file.
